DOT Dog Days of Summer Swap

Wow, I got the most wonderful swap package from my secret pal at Dogs on Thursday. She made both of my dogs blankies, which they both love
(see the pictures below of Lola sleeping in her’s)
and of course Jack thinks the blankies should be his.
She also included the most luscious yarn, Araucania’s Nature Wool that is soft and wonderful (but my batteries in my camera died as I was getting reay to take a pix of it, grrrrr). There was a darling key chain,
vanilla cookies for dogs, chocolate tea and Turtle Check Mix for me. In addition, Criquette did not forget the cats; she sent Jack and Jill a pack of snacks (that they got in a fight over) and Onyx a box of white cheddar crackers that I made her share with me. :-) then there was this huge glove / groomer that works on all of the animals, which is great!
Thank you Criquette, I appreciate everything you sent and I loved your wonderful letter to me.

Contests

Knitting in Red Shoes is having a blogoversary contest (One Year, One Month, and One Day) with an Olympic theme. She is giving away Purewool; go here to enter.

Indieknits is also having a contest, all you have to do is make a comment about you favorite colorways and yarn, very easy. The winner will receive a skein of her sock yarn, you can go here to enter.

Darcy at Knotty Knitter is having a cable cat necklace contest that you can enter here. There are 3 different ways to enter and the necklace is gorgeous.

Enjoy these contests and as alway please tell the blogger who sent you.

How Many of Me???

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Does this mean that I will never have to worry about Identity theft or running into anyone with the same signature?

Dogs on Thursdays and a Contest, Wahoooo!

This collage of all of the animals.


Don't you love the Green eye look? This is Di and Loopy (Lola) laying on my bed while I am getting the room ready to pack, notice how they are rushing around to help me?

Again, Di and Loopy are trying their damndest to help me get the room packed up :-)


Contest
I found another contest; this one is at Chrissy's Random Life: A Knitting Blog (she is also known as Yarn Sprout, which is the name of her store) and she is giving away the most beautiful 100% naturally died yarn. The condition being that you have to blog about the yarn once you receive, but is that very hard for a knitter to do? Go here to enter and please let her know I sent you :-)

Whiskers on Wednesday

Onyx
Jill
Jack
Jack and Onyxalt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234096670397488930" />

Knitting Mysteries and Thank You's

I probably have not mentioned that I love to read, which sometimes interferes with knitting. Both are wonderful pastimes and sometimes I cannot decide which I want to do; unfortunately, I am not good enough at knitting to be able to read or walk and knit at the same time. The funny thing is that I can watch TV and knit or read or walk, but I guess that is because most of the programs on TV are so lowbrow that it
does not matter if I don’t stare at the screen 90% of the time. (In case you cannot tell, I thing TV is highly overrated). Anyway, the purpose of this diatribe is to let you know about a new author I found since I came to Colorado. Her name is Maggie Sefton, who is a local author, and she writes knitting mysteries that are very entertaining. Her most recent release was “Dyer Consequences” and you can find it here. I have read all five of her books and have enjoyed each one of them; I hope you get a chance to pick one up.

I want to thank Marie of SMARIE KNITS; she has been so helpful with the chart-knitting thing (that I am such a boob about). She typed out the entire thing for me for me to explain how to use the chart; this is a woman with a small child (where does she find the time?) so I truly am thankful that she did this for me. Now I am going to sit down with some scrap and see if I can do it without screwing it up too much. Thank you Marie!

Guess what, I have been very luck in the last couple of weeks, I have won two blog contests, the 400th Post Contest by Grammieknits and the weekly contest from Aunt Kathy’s Place. Thank you Jane and Aunt Kathy, it feels great to win :-)

BTW, Aunt Kathy’s contest will run until August 31, 2008, so it is not too late to enter, just let her know I sent you.

Did I mention that teams have assigned for Dish Rag Tag? I am on team 12; we named ourselves the Cotton Conquerors. I think we will be number 1, but I have read a couple of blogs from other teams who think they will be number 1. I think this will be a great deal of fun!

Still Knitting and Whining

I have been beavering away on my sweater, but as I said, it takes longer to make a sweater for a fat person than a thin one. You would think that it would encourage me to lose weight, but I do love eating. :-) The sweater is looking good, the stitches seem even and smooth and no giant boo boos are appearing. I do think that I will knit the front and back together on the next one and do away with the side seams. It is now time for me to start the top portion, which is on a chart. I have never worked on a chart before so I am a little bit nervous about it. I think I may go ahead and cast on for the front before I start the lace on the top of the back. What a boob (or is it a chicken?). If any of you have any suggestions I would appreciate it.

I am still in a hotel and I am getting ???? (do not know what word to use). Yes, I am whining again. This is not the hardest thing in the world, at least we have a roof over our heads and everyone is healthy, but it is so small and privacy is a thing of the past. We move on the 21st of August and we are all getting very anxious. I think I just need to count my blessings instead of whining so much.

Contests
I found some contests that look like fun. First there is Addicted to Knitting, whose contest is about family traditions, do you like them or buck them. Some of the comments are hilarious, and you can enter here. If you do decide to enter, please let them know that I sent you.

Knitting and Sewing and all Forms of Procrastination has a contest and all you have to do is leave a comment about yourself. Very easy and fun, you can enter here. If you do decide to enter, please let them know that I sent you.

Finally there is Knit and Purr’s contest which takes a little more effort but is still fun. All you have to do is guess the number of pets she has and their names, but she is giving away some great yarn. She says “Lisa Souza Sock!, Dashing Dachs, Lorna's Laces, and maybe some Wollmeise
- maybe. I may even give choices." You can’t get any better than that. You can enter here. And as always, please let her know I sent you.

Real Knitting, Finally

I finally got a good picture of the dishcloth my swap partner sent me; I don’t know why I had such a hard time getting this picture originally. I guess I need to become a better photographer. Isn’t this pattern great? Moreover, I think the colors are great; it has become my favorite face cloth.

Have you ever noticed that it takes many stitches to knit for a fluffy person? I am making the sweater I found in Knitty, shown in my last post. I have not made a sweater for me before, so I was unsure of the sizing, etc. I cast on for the largest size (and it took many attempts since my tail was never long enough), but finally I got all stitches on the needles and started knitting away.
This picture is what I completed the first evening I had time to work on it (several attempts at swatching took up a great deal of time, as did my several tries at casting on.) I have now gotten much farther along, and am loving it, the green is not quite right in this picture; however we have horrible lighting in our hotel and I think it has affected the picture. Nevertheless, as I said, it takes many stitches when knitting for a fluffy person (and I am definitely fluffy) :-)

I signed up for Dish Rag Tag today; I think this will be fun. You can go here to sign up.