Handmade knitting needle jar

Blogger hates me more on my own computer than on my husband's laptop, apparently. It would not let me log in on my machine but would on his. I restarted my computer and now we're getting along, but...sheesh.

Tasha recommended photographing my knitting needle jar on an overcast day, and yesterday provided a good opportunity. Here's the best shot I could manage, in front of the flowering rhododendron. That's a scarf, mittens, and a sweater, and there are also socks. The mittens and scarf go over the lip of the jar. I love it.

OK, I've fixed some stuff. The photos--who knows. Blogger won't let you look at photos you've uploaded to their server so I can't fix that easily.

Those who know me already know this, but the puppy has gone back to the breeder. It wasn't an easy time.

I am going to attempt to post photos of items my parents recently received from me. A doubleknit hat from The Blue Blog, an Irish Hiking Scarf (wider than the pattern called for), and an Irish Hiking Hat.

The reversible hat is Lamb's Pride Worsted in Jack's Plum and Misty Blue(?) and the Irish Hiking Hat and Scarf are in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in coal.

Blogger hates me. Can you tell? It's gone psycho on me and I've no idea why and I'm not inclined to fix it at the moment. Sorry to my millions of readers--hah!

Vicious puppy attack

We're tired; it's been a big day of picking out the puppy and bringing her home. Meet Maggie, who loves to chew on grass, leaves, shoelaces, etc. We hope we got a good one. I feel like I need to re-read my puppy books so I do everything right.

I don't think there will be any knitting for several days. The only knitting-related thing I will be doing is putting my things away, out of puppy reach. Right now the majority of the house is still not so puppy friendly. Her room is pretty good, although still full of bad things to chew on since my desk is in here. She'll just be under constant supervision or in her crate until we can trust her.

Knitters, go check out the lovely knitting needle jar my friend Tasha is selling. I have not been able to take a good picture of the one she made for me, but I will keep trying. I love it.

Sock Knitting Heresy

One of my favorite pairs of socks is machine made. I don't remember where I got them and I've had them for approximately a decade. I try to limit myself to wearing them indoors in the winter when I'm sick in an effort to make them last forever. They're cotton with some elastic in the cuff and they are beginning to show their age. I would love to redo the pattern someday except it would be so hard!

Three days!?

I just got a call from the breeder. The puppy could come home as early as Thursday. I don't feel ready! We get the second pick of the seven females, so we will have to wait for the #1 person to pick first. Anyway, I'd assumed we'd get her on Saturday so the idea that she might come home earlier has just surprised me.

Here is my swift about to be used. Matches the table and chairs well, huh? You can sort of see here why the yarn was catching on the swift and why moving the winder to the far, opposite end of the table would probably fix that.

I'm all discombobulated

Today we moved my desk from the third bedroom into the "family room," i.e., the converted garage. The bedroom doesn't have grounded plugs or a cable outlet, so I'd been risking my computer equipment and running a cable over much of the house to have my desk in there. The puppy will be in the family room since it's large and has vinyl floors. She and I can spend a lot of time in here together. I may yet move the desk back and buy a wireless card for the PC since we already have wireless set up for the laptop, but for now, here I am.

I wound up most of my leftover sock yarn. Here it is.

Socks from the past

Here are some socks I made for my cousin. The yarn is this Regia and the stripes are not exactly the same on each sock, yet I managed to match the toes up perfectly.

I'm worried about the Jaywalkers being too big in the heel. Please don't make me rip them again.

Purse by Melissa

I don't think my mom ever saw the felted purse I got from Melissa, so here it is:

Mmm...burgers

We miss our old burger joint. I had no idea they had so many stores. We haven't found a good burger place here yet. It's probably a good thing we haven't; we went to Five Guys too often.

Knitting? I take back what I said about the larger Jaywalkers not striping as nicely as the small ones. I think the stripes are a little more slanted than last time, but I'm happy with them so far. The only thing I'm worried about is the cuff being too big. Normally I'd cast on 68 but these socks have 84 CO stitches. We'll see. The leg appears to be large enough to fit over my heel.

I can't stop looking at my puppy pictures

...and I hate to bump them down and eventually off the main page. As for names, we have a couple we like but haven't picked one. And we're willing to wait to get to know the dog a little bit first. Momma dog is Peg and Daddy dog is Abe; we hope to get pictures of them eventually. We really like Abe. He's very handsome and friendly. He let me look at his teeth and touch his feet with no complaints the day I met him. And I found out very quickly that he's a "leaner"; he leaned against my legs when I was sitting in a dining room chair so he could be petted.

Knitting stuff: An out-of-print collection of patterns from Rowan was on eBay but went too high for me to think about bidding on. The reason I'm somewhat interested is the Martha cardigan. But since I've never made an adult sweater before I shouldn't look beyond the sweater patterns I already have in my possession, and there are a few.

Dog tired

The visit with the puppies (and a trip to Home Depot) has tired me out. I've started my Jaywalkers over with the larger size. So far the colors don't seem to be as cool as they were for my first attempt, but that's OK.