For the Love of Scotland

I’m home from a 10-day island-hopping extravaganza in Scotland. It was wonderful. Scotland is always wonderful. In my most humble way I’ll say that this is my 5^th trip, and I am busily planning for trip 6. If I could afford to buy a place there and spend months at a time, I would, that’s how much I love being there.

So, the latest trip. This trip and the last 2 were with a group of friends, who are part a of a scotch-drinking group at the Dundee Dell here in Omaha. The Dell has over 800 open stock bottles of scotch and hosts a scotch tasting on the 1^st Sunday of every month. Yes, I like scotch. Do I like it as much as these other guys? Wellllllll, maybe not at that level, but I do really enjoy a good dram, and I enjoy tasting different ones.

Every 3 years this group goes on a distillery tour of Scotland, and I jump on those coat tails for a trip to Scotland. Sure, it’s not the trip I would plan out for myself—not a single woolen mill or yarn shop on the list. However, I’ve been all over Scotland, so it’s been worth every tour.

This latest trip was a bit of a diversion. Normally, they’d be going next year on their regular distillery extravaganza, but we all wanted to go to the Islay Whisky and Music Festival, Feis Ile. We also wanted to go to some of the islands in the Inner Hebrides, specifically Mull and Skye. Everything about this trip was different from the others, and that’s a good thing. Sure, we went to distilleries, but we also had more time for shopping and just walking around, doing touristy things. It was awesome!

Let me give you the down and dirty outline of what we did. Later I will do posts dedicated to different aspects of the trip.

We landed in Edinburgh and immediately headed to south to Kennacraig to catch the ferry to Islay. The first rule of traveling the islands: Don’t Miss the Ferry! We docked in Port Askaig, Islay, and said “Hello old friend!”

We dropped the bags at the Bowmore Hotel, then walked down to the Bowmore Distillery for their open day. Each distillery has an “open day” which is their celebration and each distillery produces a special festival bottling, available on that day. We were way too late to get a bottle, but we did get in a tour, a few drams, and listened to some great music. Dinner at the hotel, then we all crashed.

Next day was the Kilchoman (keel-ho-man) Distillery’s open day, and we went early for a tour. Then, we joined the line to buy the festival bottle. Well, my husband and one of the other ladies from the group stood in line. I walked around and did other shopping in their gift shop and got the hubby a cup of coffee and a slice of sponge cake. He stood in line for an hour, the least I could do was feed him some refreshments. After that, we ate a delicious lunch at the Bridgend Hotel (where I’d like to stay next time), then headed over to Bruichladdie (brook lahdee) Distillery for a tour with the manager, Duncan. Bruichladdie is one of my favorite distilleries and I always recommend it as a place to tour. Then we had dinner at the Harbour Inn. We continually go there and it is continually way too expensive. Tasted good, though.

Next we went on the Ardbeg boat ride, as in a boat ride sponsored by Ardbeg Distillery. We left from Ardbeg on a powerboat that took us out onto the MacTaggart estate to a bothy cottage where we had lobster for lunch and a whole lot of Ardbeg, including the festival bottling. 

After that we made a whirlwind tour to other distilleries to buy whisky. We went to Laphroig, Caol Ila, and Bunnahabain, which was winding down its open day. That night we had dinner at the Indian restaurant in Bowmore, which we will never do again.

Next day was Ardbeg’s Open Day, so we, of course, went and got the bottle, while some of the guys played golf. Ardbeg’s activities had an Olympic theme, so there were games and a parade of nations, which we participated in. We marched to the Proclaimers’ “100 miles” with a guy from Colorado who held the flag. We finally ate at the café (always wanted to and never had before) and had delicious soup and a sandwich. Afterwards we went to see the Kildalton Cross and the cemetery. The wonderful people at the Bowmore Hotel squeezed us in for dinner, even though they were swamped with a birthday party. And it was delicious.

Early morning to catch the ferry the following day. We drove up to Oban, getting there early enough to explore. We went to the Oban Distillery, did a tasting, and bought a bottle. I kind of like this pattern of no tours, just drinking and buying. Anyway, Oban is a tourist trap—it’s population triples in the summer. There are 2 great knitting shops, but it was Sunday, and they were closed. Later we took the ferry to the Isle of Mull. We got to the Western Isles Hotel just in time for dinner—the most amazing dinner with the best view.

Mull is gorgeous and has a cute village with some nice little shops. It also is the home of Tobermory Distillary, where we had a great tour. We had time to do some shopping before getting on the ferry back to the mainland for a very twisty, curvy road up the western coastline to catch the next ferry to the Isle of Skye. We got to the Advasar Hotel and hung out in their pub and had dinner.

I wish we had had more time on Skye. It’s a gorgeous place. We toured the Talisker Distillery, which is a fabulous whisky but a horrible tour. We drove around some, did some shopping in Portree before going to Uig to catch the ferry to Isle of Harris, where we, again, got there in time for dinner at the hotel.

The Isles of Lewis and Harris are the same landmass, but they are vastly different. Lewis is more rocky. We went to St. Clement’s Church then headed over to Harris and toured the Abhainn Dearg distillery. This was a real treat because they are just getting started. It’s very compact and laid back. I felt lucky to have seen it and bought a bottle of their 3 year old. We drove around a little more, then headed to our hotel, the Thorlee Guest House for the night.

The next morning we took the ferry to Ulapool on the mainland and started our gorgeous, scenic route across the northern coastline to Thurso, waaaaay on the other side of the Highlands. It’s at Thurso that the hubby and I met knitter/podcaster Louise and went to her house for dinner with her husband and kids. It was one of the best times we had on the trip.

The next day we headed south, stopping at Old Pultney Distillery and The Dalmore Distillery to do some shopping, before stopping in Inverness. We stayed at The Glen Mhor Hotel, a lovely place on the river, and had a great dinner after a day of shopping and just walking around the city. After being on the remote islands, we felt a little claustrophobic until we got used to it.

After a good night’s sleep, we headed to Edinburgh. Even though we got stuck in traffic for some bridge repair, we got into Edinburgh early enough to walk around the Royal Mile, do some shopping, do some sightseeing, and have dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants, before going to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Leith, called “The Vaults.”

All too soon it was time for one more sleep then back to the airport to fly home.

That is more than enough for one post! Did I lose anyone? The posts after this will be more focused. Hope you come back!

Round Up & Forecast

Whew! Going from rarely blogging to blogging every day for 7 days was quite the challenge. Wait, 8 days if you count this one!

I loved it! Thank you Eskimimi for starting Knit and Crochet Blog Week. It was great to check out some new blogs and it got my creative juices going, which is what I was hoping for.

Blogging can be stressful for me because I put too much pressure on myself. Is it good enough, do I need more graphics and/or photos to break up the writing, did I make the links I should have or did I forget something, am I boring yadda yadda yadda. Isn't it sad how hard we can be on ourselves? I'm a great coach and cheerer-upper, so why can't I do the same for myself? Oh well, that's a post for another day.

So, I have more crafty goodness to write about, so I think I'm going to keep up with the blogging. Probably not every day, but regularly. I have so much going through my head, I might as well write it down because the dogs are tired of listening to me talk to them. They just stare at me, waiting for me to say words they recognize, like food, treat, park, or let's go! They eventually just sigh and walk away.

The 3rd Annual KCBW was a nice inspirational kick, and one I badly needed. All the posts are labeled with KCBW if anyone new wants to take a look at the posts. I know that I'm still going around, finding new blogs and reading what people wrote.

Until next time, I wish you even tension and happy colors!

3KCBWDAY7 The Perfect Day

This is it! Our last day. Thank you Eskimimi for making this so much fun. This was my first time participating, and I can't wait for next year.

For the last day, I decided to go with the wildcard instead of the suggested topic. The topic was fine; I like knitting and crochet, even though I totally suck at crochet. My edges are wavy in crochet because my ability to count seems to leave me. But I will get better, and until then I'll make symmetrically edged knitted objects.

Besides, I daydream about my perfect day of knitting all the time, so I might as well put it in writing.

My day starts as I get off the airplane in Edinburgh, Scotland. I've had plenty of sleep because of course I flew in first class, so my comfy seat reclined after I drank all of my champagne. I jump in a taxi and head down to the train station, where I sit, again, in first class and buy sweets from the trolly. I'm taking the train up into the Highlands to my cottage. I'm taking a train instead of driving because I want to knit on the train.

At the station, I rent a car to get to my cottage that is off a single lane, curvy road. The estate agent has it ready for me, with a stocked fridge, a sponge cake, a teapot ready for hot water, and a bottle of scotch for later in the day. There's also a fire roaring in the fireplace.

Next to the fireplace is an overstuffed chair with a basket of wound yarn. I had already placed an order for some Alice Starmore yarn, so it's ready for me to start knitting the St. Ciaran wrap.

I throw the suitcase in the bedroom upstairs, then make a pot of tea before I settle in to start knitting. I turn my iPod on to listen to knitting podcasts. I stop long enough to make another pot of tea and call the hubby to check on the dogs, then back to knitting.

I put another log on the fire, take a sip of tea, eat some cake, knit, rinse and repeat.

Because I've come from so far away, I've decided that a day isn't long enough, so I'm staying a week. I meet up with the local knitting group, I meet new friends, and I buy groceries at the local shops. I might do some sightseeing, but then again, I might not. I won't finish the wrap in that time, but I'll get a lot done, and once I get home and work on it and later wear it, I'll remember my perfect knitting vacation.

3KCBWDAY6 Improving Your Skillset

First things first, the answer to the cyrptoquote:
I will resist the urge to underestimate the complexity of knitting. --Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

We're winding down on the 3rd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. It's gone pretty fast, and I've had a good time going around to the different blogs to getting to know new crafters.

Our topic for today is all about what we have learned, what we are learning, and what we want to learn. When I started knitting, everyone said over and over, "It's just 2 stitches, knit and purl, and once you know those you can do anything." I think that little piece of advice has a double meaning.

Yes, once you learn to knit and purl, everything after that is variations using those 2 stitches. You may increase or decrease, but you still are knitting and purling. So, in that sense, don't be intimidated because it's just 2 little stitches.

However, your learning isn't over just because you can knit and purl! There's lace, cables, yarn overs, a myriad of increases and decreases, intarsia, fair isle, double knitting, duplicate stitch, entrelac, mitered squares, knitting in the round on double point needles or on two circular needles or on magic loop, jogless stripes, weaving in ends, kitchener stitch, and the list goes on and on. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

I feel pretty confident in my skills. I may feel intimidated by the complexity of a project, but I feel confident I have the skills to accomplish it. Some things need more practice *cough fair isle* but I have tried all of the techniques and skills I've mentioned.

Sound cocky? Just wait, the confession is coming.

If you look on my project pages, you see lace shawls, cable mitts, fair isle hats, intarsia blankets, but you will notice a glaring hole in my repertoire. No sweaters. I'm intimidate by them--the seaming, the sizing, and so on.

Every year I tell myself, "This is the year I will make a sweater!" And every year I chicken out. It seems like such a big project that takes so much time and yarn that I would be really frustrated if I screwed it up. But I'm getting pretty fed up with myself and my excuses. You know it's bad when even you scold you.

So, I'm looking for a sweater to make. I think seamless would be good for a first sweater, it's just hard to decide which one. I am taking a seaming class at Stitches Midwest this year, so maybe that will give me the boost I need to piece a sweater together.

I'm not going to give myself a deadline. I know me; I'll ignore it. I set the alarm on my phone to remind me to take my afternoon meds, and I just ignore it thinking, "eh, I'll get them in a minute," then I don't. I'm dependable unless I'm depending on myself.

But I want 2012 to be the year I make a sweater. Any suggestions?

Be sure to go check out other people's posts and see what they are wanting to improve on.

*Clip art from http://www.picgifs.com/clip-art/knitting/

3KCBWDAY5 The Something Different Post

Let's play a game. This may look like a bunch of numbers, but it's so much more. It's a Cryptoquote. Each number represents a letter. The number is always that letter, for example if the number 2 represents the letter E, then all 2s are Es. Your objective is to break the code and reveal the quote and it's author. Hint: The first word is only one letter, so that narrows down what that word could be.

Ready?

___          ___  ___  ___  ___          ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___

 18            11    18     2      2              6     12     1     18     1      5

___  ___  ___          ___  ___  ___  ___          ___  ___

  5      3     12            15     6     22    12             5     21

___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___

 19     4     20    12     6     12     1      5     18    17    10     5     12

 

___  ___  ___         ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___

  5      3     12           16    21    17     7      2     12    23    18     5     13

___  ___          ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___.

 21    14             9      4     18     5      5     18     4     22

___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___          ___  ___  ___  ___  ___--

  1      5     12     7      3     10     4     18    12             7     12    10     6      2

___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___

17     16     7      3     12    12

 







I will put the answer in tomorrow's post.  I hope everything lines up OK on your screen. It looks fine on mine, but that doesn't mean it was fine on everyone's.

Thanks everyone! I'm off to see the other blogs. I can't wait to see how creative everyone was.

    

3KCBWDAY4 Knitting for All Seasons

“She enjoys rain for its wetness, winter for its cold, summer for its heat. She loves rainbows as much for fading as for their brilliance. It is easy for her, she opens her heart and accepts everything.” 

― Morgan Llywelyn, Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

In this 4th day of the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, the topic question is, "How does seasonal weather affect your knitting?" Many knitters only knit warm things with wool in the cold weather and cooler things with cotton in the warmer months. 

Well, I don't really like knitting with cotton, and I always seem to be cold, so I don't really follow those conventions. I pretty much knit whatever I'm in the mood for, not worrying about the season.

I would say that I am a cold-weather item knitter, though. I love knitting mittens and hats and cowls

Fingerless mitts for Christmas

Graham hat for me

Cowls for Christmas

But I also love knitting shawls. Are those seasonal? I guess if I knit them in wool, they'd be better suited for cooler weather. But like I always have a sock going, I always have a shawl going, too.

Traveling Woman

Multnomah

 

 

Autumn Grace

The nice thing about knitting these items is that you can pretty much knit them year round. Inevitably, when I'm knitting one of these "warmers" as I call them or give one away, another person decides he or she wants one. That works for me. Not only do people like my knitting enough that that they want something, but now I have an excuse to make it rather then I just want to.

So all seasons are beautiful and all knitting is knitable within those seasons.

Enjoy reading the blog posts, everyone. I've had such a good time reading everyone's take on these topics.

3KCBWDAY3 Knitting Hero

Welcome to day 3 of the Knit & Crochet Blog Week! Thanks to all the commenters and visitors who have been stopping by. It's been a while since I've blogged regularly, so this has been a real treat. I've also enjoyed reading other people's posts and seeing their projects.

So, a knitting hero. This topic is actually pretty easy for me because when I saw it, I knew immediately who I would write about.

 If I say "owls sweater" what do you think of? This?:

Owl Sweater

Yep, me too. With over 5,000 projects in Ravelry, I should say we do! Did you also think of the designer Kate Davies? Yep, me too. And that's who I want to talk about, Kate Davies.

By the way, I will put a link in the captions of the photos, linking back to her website.

Kate (I feel as if I know her well enough from her blog to call her Kate) is a talented designer, writer and teacher in Scotland. Her blog Needled is a window into her life, and she shares so much with her readers.

Let me talk first about her designs. Stunning. She has everything from sweaters, whimsy ones like Owls, to lovely wardrobe staples like Decco,

Deco

 to intricate and beautiful color work such as Perrie Flooers Mittens and Hat
 

Peerie Flooers

 and the project that is my favorite and the one I hope to do some day, Rams & Yowes.

Rams and Yowes

Isn't it amazing? I'm still a little intimidated by it, but I will knit this blanket and hat.

I also said that Kate was a great writer. I've learned so much from her posts. Go to her blog and you can read everything from a post of tips for knitting one of her designs (Boreal Tropic)  to a post from her dog Bruce about a walk he went on (River Almond Walk). She's a great teacher, writing about historical textiles, such as "from Muhu Island."

As wonderful as these posts are, it's the writings about her recovering from a stroke that really stand out. Maybe I'm more sensitive to these posts because I have MS and many of the things she deals with are similar to what I have to deal with. Kate had a stroke at a young age, but she is persevering and designing and writing about knitting in her historical e-magazines, Textisles. She's honest about her struggles, but there are good days and you get to enjoy those with her too, like when she rode a bike for the first time since the stroke in "Machine."

I could go on and on. I haven't even gotten into the fact that she's in Scotland, one of my favorite places in the world. So not only is the blog a glimpse into the life of a designer but also about living in Scotland.

But this has to be enough for now. I'm struggling with some fatigue right now with the MS, so I need to knock off and rest a bit. I hate to just cut this short, but I'm sure Kate would understand.

Go to her blog. Read the posts, admire the pictures, drool over the patterns, and learn something about historical textiles. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Enjoy reading about others' heroes. I'm going to do that later today, so I'll see y'all later.

3KCBWDay2 Photography Challenge

Day 2 for Knit & Crochet Blog Week is a photography challenge. And it certainly was. A challenge, that is. I should have spent a little more time thinking about this ahead of time, but pffffffttt. Thinking ahead. Where will that get ya?

So, as I went through some photos, I noticed a reoccurring visitor, and I realized that Cosette enjoys my knitting as much as I do. Well, maybe not enjoys so much as thinks all things are for her enjoyment.

She had just been told to stay off

So obviously this one is for her

This time it's hanging up so she doesn't have a choice but stay off

That is not a ball & it doesn't taste like sheep

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

For those of you wondering, Cosette is a PBGV, a Petite Basset Griffon Vendeen, which is a fancy way to say French hound dog.

BTW, we do have another dog, Lucy, but she pretty much ignores my knitting, except to mistake the wound cake for a ball sometimes.

That's me. I'm heading out to look at other people's photos.  Enjoy looking at everyone's blogs today!

3KCBWDAY1 Colour Lovers

Day 1 of Knit & Crochet Blog Week 2012! We're here! Thank you Eskimi Makes for making it all possible, and welcome fellow knitters, crocheters, and those just curious about what the heck this is.

When I first set up my craftroom, I envisioned a wall of yarn--glass bookcases filled with colorful yarn. I decided against the bookcases, opting instead for an open unit from Ikea, but I still got my wall of yarn. 

 Not an entire wall, but I'm working on that. You can't see it, but there is yarn in those green boxes, too. Well, I can't just throw those leftover yarns away, now can I? Who knows, one of these days I may make that sock yarn blanket (read about it here), the one with matchbox size squares sewn together. Or not.

When I look at the yarn, I realize I'm matted. I mean, "matte" in terms of a lack of visual brightness. That's not a bad thing; I just gravitate towards earthy, non-shiny colors. I do try to break out of that, then I go to the yarn shop and go straight to the greens, neutrals, dark colors, and every shade of gray that comes into view.

You may notice there's a small contradiction color on the second shelf. Yep. Purple! A lavender-y,  lilac-y color of Cascade 220 that I ordered from Webs years ago to make the Cashmere Crossing poncho by Kathy Zimmerman (Ravelry page here). It was lighter than I thought it would be, and although I could've sent it back and exchanged it, I decided to keep it and use it to break out of my color rut. You can see how well that turned out. It wasn't until last month that I actually wound a skein into a cake and started knitting a lacy shawl by Mari Lynn Patrick that was in KnitSimple magazine (Ravalry page here). Here's a picture of my progress so far.

 I'm still not really wild about the color. It's just not me, but the pattern is pretty and I think it will make a pretty wrap to wear on the chilly Nebraska mornings. Or, it'll make a nice gift for someone and I'll just make another one in a different color. I've been drawn to blues, lately. I finally made a Damson shawl by Ysolda Teague for myself out of a blue Malabrigo sock yarn. 

This post is starting to ramble on, but one more thought on color. When I started knitting, I really enjoyed the variegated colored yarn, and I still really enjoy variegated yarns. However, I'm knitting more and more with tonal and solid colors. I think that's because I'm knitting more lace and cable patterns, and those patterns show up better in solid or not-so-variegated colors. But being a sock knitter, I love me some multicolored, hand-dyed sock yarn. It's wonderful to be able to buy a skein of a wild color and make a pair of socks with it. Or a shawlette or a cowl or fingerless mitts ...

Lorna's Laces Jungle Stripe, anyone?

Have a wonderful, colorful day everyone! See you tomorrow.

Challenge! I Need To Be Pushed Out Of My Chair!

I need a challenge. I need someone to knock me upside the head and say, "Snap out of it! Get going!"

Enter the 3rd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, a project of the creative Eskimimi Makes. For the week of 23 April, I will blog every day for 7 days, probably following the suggested topics. As you might guess, these topics are about knitting! I'm free to write whatever I want, but I like the topics she has suggested, and considering it's been months since I've actually written anything, I think this might be a good jump start for me to pull myself up and get back in the game. Hmmmm, how many cliches can I allude to in one sentence? 

Anyway, I will be writing. I will be posting. I will be blogging. Hooray! And I'm not the only one, kids. There will be tags connected to the posts that anyone writes for this challenge so that we can find each other. All I need is another blog to suck all my time, but whattayagonnado?

Tune in soon for riveting engaging interesting oh heck, tune in next week, starting on Monday, 23 April!

Oh For Heaven's Sake

Really? I haven't posted anything since Christmas? Actually, that's not too hard to believe, considering how lazy I have been lately.

I got sick AGAIN. A chest cold came on right after the new year and hung in for awhile. Then I just lost all my energy. This is not uncommon with MS, but I do think I milked it a little longer than I really needed to. I'm still having some pain in my ears and a sore throat in the evenings, but I've decided I'm healthy, so I'm moving on. I'm really good at self-pity, but even I get sick of myself after a while.

Knitting, knitting, knitting. I haven't been too tired to not knit. Eventually, I will do a post on everything I've been doing and I will update my projects page on Ravelry. I have photos, it's just a matter of writing it all up.

I feel like I should set some goals for 2012. So far, it's been the year of apathy, and that's not good. It's also not like me. So, what should my theme for 2012 be? The year of completed projects? The year of energy? The year of living a healthy life? So many options. It looks like it will be February before I decide, though. Hopefully it won't be the year of procrastination.

I'm off. I have two whining dogs sitting in front of me. They want a treat. I shouldn't give them one because one of them is a little chunky and needs to lose a few pounds, but I'm weak. Not only are they cute with those big brown eyes staring up at me, but they are driving me crazy with that whining! Oh well, one little dog biscuit broken in half between them would be OK, right?

Ho Ho Ho

All the knitting is done, all the gifts are wrapped, the away gifts are shipped & delivered, the cookies are baked & eaten, and I even spent this morning writing in my Christmas journal about what a great December I've had and what I want to remember to do next year. For as horrible as November was, December has been awesome.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas holiday and a happy and healthy 2012. I will try to be more consistent next year. It's one of my resolutions. One of the first things I'll do first is post pictures and write about the Christmas knitting.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

It's November What?!?

Way back in September, I started planning and even knitting some Christmas presents. I was so proud of how early I was starting. I was not going to be crazily knitting all night just to get gifts in the mail to be received by Christmas. I was not going to have find a gift at the last minute because I just didn't get the knitting done. I was not going to have to create IOUs for gifts that would be coming after Christmas. Even through most of October I would think, "I still have the whole month of November! No problems."

"The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance" 

--Samuel Butler

Let's see:

Needed: 7 pairs of fingerless mittens, 2 hats, 1 shawl, 1 infinity scarf
Completed: 3 1/2 pairs of fingerless mittens, 1 shawl (that still needs to be blocked)

Suddenly, November seems like a very, very short month. None of those items take a long time, but when you add up how many need to be done, that's a lot of time for my fingers to fly through the yarn. However, it can be done! OK, don't want to fall into the pride hole again, but I do think I can still get all this done.  I love knitting these items, and the people the gifts are going to are definitely hand-knit worthy, so I will just have to make it so. Every time I start another gift, I'll hear Patrick Stewart saying, "Make it so." And it will be so.

Wish List

This is a quick post. Quick because I've been dealing with the stomach flu (I won't go into details, you're welcome) and quick because I'm using you. Yes, I just started blogging again, and what do I do? I take advantage of our blossoming friendship, our getting reacquainted, by using this space to enter a contest. Oh well. It can't be helped! It's knitting stuff. It calls to me. Haunts my dreams. Occupies my...oh, you get the idea.

So, here's the deal. I have to post a link to my wish list on Knit Picks to enter their contest. I really like Knit Picks, so I have no problem sending a link to their site. As far as I know, they are everything they seem to be--a family-owned business that carefully sources their products to cut out the middle man and sell knitting yarns and supplies at a fantastic price. So, here's the link to my wish list.

And here's to hoping I win the gift card!

Welcome Back!

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've been thinking about reviving this blog because I'm tired of talking to the wall. It's not a good conversationalist. And the dogs, as cute and wonderful as they are, when I talk to them, they just stare at me, waiting for words they recognize, like treat, walk, and eat. Thus, I've decided this might be a better outlet.

I'd like this to be what I originally planned when I changed it to "The Kettle's On." There's going to be a lot of crafty, knitty talk on this blog. I want it to be all warm and comfy, like we're having a conversation while sitting around with a pot of tea or something stronger, if needed. Face it, some projects just don't go as planned, and all the chamomile tea in the world won't help. Sometimes there will be talk about whisky (I'm a scotch drinker), travel, my dogs, and probably movies/TV/music. Every now and then, there will be talk about MS, only because it's a part of my life and can affect this blog.

There won't be talk of politics, religion, current events, or even past events. At least, it's my plan to stay away from those topics. Not because I'm against blogs that talk about those things, I just don't do it as well as they do, so why bother. Besides, I'm so disillusioned by all things political and media-driven that you'd quickly run away from all the cynicism and complaining.

No! Let's stay positive and fun, and in my world, knitting is positive and fun. So, let me end this on a high note, with a picture that combines two of my favorite things. This is Cosette, checking out one of my latest projects, the Multnomah shawl.

Official

Well, I thought that I might try blogging more often and get back into it, but it's just not happening. I don't really have the energy or the desire, and worse, I don't even read other blogs. So, I thought I might as well make it official and close the blog. Or at least, make it official that I won't be blogging.

Thanks for coming by, thanks for checking in, thanks for commenting. Thank you.

Jobs 4 Girls

While Jay and Mom were up for Thanksgiving, Jay, Al, and I went to the Strategic Air and Space Museum. It's a wonderful museum, really well done with interesting exhibits and history.

However.

You knew there would be a however, didn't you?

So, we're in the museum gift shop. Lots of great models, t-shirts, and gifts to commemorate military, planes, and the mission. But they didn't want to leave out the girls! So, in the midst of all this inspiring stuff, here's what girls can aspire to be:



A Flight Attendant!

Really? OK, historically, women couldn't participate in nuclear military missions, but a flight attendant? For the record, they didn't have flight attendants on any of those planes, either. Sheesh!

Update: A source for a different perspective of gifts for girls: Women Fly gear.

A Study in Stubbornness

Cosette has an opinion of where she wants to walk, and many times it's not where I want her to go. This is how it goes . . .


But, but, but, I don't wanna go that way:



I wanna to go this way:



I don't wanna go that way. You never go where I wanna go:



OK, but I don't wanna:

Major knitting going on and pics to come. The women are getting fingerless mittens and the men are getting hats. One more hat to go, two more mitts, then I get to knit for myself! Unless I decide to expand my knitted-gift circle. A strong possibility.

In other news, I thought I'd share my latest exciting moment while walking the dog. OK, so there are rarely an exciting moment, that's what makes this incident so noteworthy.

(apologies to those who have already heard this)

Cosette (greatest dog in the world) loves her morning walks, right? And we walk forever in the mornings, right? Because this dog would walk to Lincoln if I'd let her. Well, every now and then we come across loose dogs who follow us then run away, and I'm always hoping they run home. This morning, a rat terrier mix, a little smaller than Cosette, was loose and came running up to play. I told him to go home and he ran in the opposite description, so we went on our way, me hoping he was going home because I hate the idea of a lost dog and I can't do anything about it. Then here he came, running up to us again--he'd found us. He came over for me to pet him, but he didn't have a tag, but this was obviously a well taken care of dog. He kept following us, but wouldn't let me get near enough to pick him up, so I just kept calling him to follow us. And he did. Followed us all the way home, with little side trips into the street, while I held my breath, hoping he wouldn't get hit by a car.

When we got to our house, I opened the gate for Cosette to run into the backyard, called for the other dog and he ran in, too. He was good dog and obeyed commands as well as he could, being excited to be in a new environment. So, we all went in the house, and I gave Cosette a treat while I put the other dog in the car to take him to a vet to see if he was chipped. And he was! He was also shedding like crazy because he was stressed and excited, but he sat in my lap and calmed down. The Home Again people left a message with the owners, giving them my phone number because I was going to take him back home with me. They told me his name was Emmet, so I said "Hi Emmet," and he tilted his head to right in surprise and I swear he smiled at me.

Cosette wasn't too sure about this. Emmet, as I now knew him to be, ran around with a rawhide in his mouth, looking for a place to bury it, jumping on the couch, into my lap, and all over. He put it down to eat some food I put in a dish for him, and Cosette grabbed the rawhide. They had both started to settle down when Emmet's owner called, and back we got in the car to take him home.

Yay! I love it when everything works out. If Cosette was loose, I hope someone would try to find out who she belonged to and get her home, so I'm glad it worked out for Emmet. I didn't ask any questions, but Emmet's owner has 2 small children at home and I think he was probably distracted and didn't realize Emmet had gotten out, but he was very grateful to get him back and Emmet was very happy to be home.

So, get your pets chipped if you haven't already. It's a wonderful service, which you hopefully will never have to use.

Here's a new favorite pic of Cosette and me. She's such a cuddle puppy.

Guest Bath Re-do is now Re-done!

After a long couple of weeks of working on it when we could, the updating and re-do of the guest bath is complete! Al worked so hard, and we both learned a helluvalot. Al learned the most because he did the majority of the work. We're taking all the old stuff that still works and leftover materials to the ReStore for Habitat for Humanity.

What we did:

New floor
New countertop
New faucet
New tile backsplash
New cabinet handles
New paint
New frame around the mirror
New lights
New accessories (towel rod, towels, switchplates, shower curtain...)

Before:







After:






Cosette likes it, too, especially the new soft bathmats.