Spins A Good Yarn

This has been one of the most beautiful Springs that I can remember. The flowers have been lovely and long-lasting and the trees are just beautiful. I love the Spring with all the green everywhere. So much better that Winter’s constant favorite color of gray! My friend, Joyce, has a lovely spot in the village where she lives. It is like being in the country while living in the city. Her pink dogwood was so pretty that I had to take a picture of it when I went to her house for a visit. Gorgeous, huh?!?!

I have a flowering crab in front of the window in my living room. I planted it there many years ago to block the sun from shining in all morning long and heating up the house. It has grown quite large and it has created quite a nice spot for some lovely ferns, ivy and vinca vine beneath it and a happy place for birds to gather in its branches.

Speaking of flowers: My daughter, Meagan, is a quilt artist and she made me a beautiful, flowered book to keep my artist trading cards in. She put a picture of Tiffany on both the back and front of it. There are quilted flowers in the background and appliqued ones on the background fabric. I love it!!!!! She made it for me for Mother’s Day. Thanks again, Meagan!!!!!

Here’s the front.

And here’s the back!

And here’s the original picture that she used for the book. Meagan’s husband had been playing with Tiffany with a silky blanket and when he took the blanket off of her this is how she looked!

It is one of my very favorite pictures!

On a cold, winter day 13 years ago in December, we got a new puppy. He was 12 weeks old and a little, white maltese. We named him Dustin Tanner and he was a wonderful puppy. It was love at first sight between the two of us. I was his human and he was my dog. Never was there a more loyal and devoted little dog than this little guy was to me. All I had to do was look in his direction and his tail would wag and his eyes would brighten. It was always this way…for 13 years.

Today, he is no more. His health had deteriorated for the past 1 1/2 years to the point that it wasn’t fair to him to ask him to go on. So, with a sorrowful heart and the much appreciated help of my son-in-law, Marcus, I took him to the vet to be sent on to a better place. One where he could hear and be able to eat treats and not have to wear diapers any more.

He was a great little dog and we will miss his happy, wagging tail and his sweet spirit. We thank him for bringing us so much joy for so many years.

Here is a poem that the girls at the vet hospital sent home with us:

If it be I grow frail and weak,
And pain should wake me from my sleep,
Then you must do what must be done,
For this last battle can’t be won.

You will be sad, I’ll understand,
Don’t let your grief then stay your hand,
For this day more than all the rest,
Your love and friendship stand the test.

We’ve had so many happy years,
What is to come will hold no fears,
You’ll not want me to suffer, so,
When the time comes, please let me go.

I know in time, you too will see,
It is a kindness you do me,
Although my tail its last has waved,
From pain and suffering, I’ve been saved.

Do not grieve that it should be you,
Who has to decide this thing to do
We’ve been so close, we two, these years,
Don’t let your heart hold any tears.
~~ Author Unknown

We still have two dogs, Mandy and Tiffanie, but our hearts have been broken today and we will always love and miss our third, little white dog!

Rest in peace, little guy!

Christmas came and went and all the presents were wrapped, unwrapped and enjoyed by their recipients! Here are some of the gifts that were knitted:

This is the sweater that I knitted for my mom. The yarn was Silky Wool and I used a #5 Harmony circular needle from Knit Picks. I used a “pattern suggestion” from the book “The Sweater Workshop” by Jacqueline Fee. You do a gauge swatch and determine the stitches per inch, then using measurements from the intended wearer, you work off percentages of a key number which is the waist/high hip measurement x the stitches per inch number. I had never done anything like this before and was a little nervous because I jumped right to the back of the book, skipping the basic sweater, basic cardigan and onto the V-Neck Cardigan. I was a little worried, but all went very well and (except for running out of buttons and almost not being able to get any more) the sweater turned out very nice and fit my mom just perfect. Like it was made for her, LOL!!! She knew about it as I kept having her try it on as I was knitting it. I will certainly knit another sweater or two or three using this wonderful book!!!

The underarm seam was joined using the kitchener stitch and was the last thing to be finished. It was not hard and looks great!

I made two pair of socks for her birthday, also, which is in December. This first pair is made using Wendy Johnson’s toe-up feather and fan pattern and the yarn is from Ellen’s 1/2 pint farm. It is a blend of wool and tencel and is very soft. I had to knit the first cuff twice as it was too small the first time. GRRRR! This pattern was really fun and easy to knit!

The second pair was knitted with Zitron Lifestyle yarn, toe up with a short row toe and using the slip-stitch heel with gusset pattern which was also written by Wendy Johnson. I got the yarn at the Summer Gallery at Chautauqua, NY, where I taught knitting this summer. Wonderful yarn!!!!

I made Marcus a hat which spells out “H-A-T” in binary code. I used this pattern for the basic hat and charted out the three 8-unit letters of the code. I may make some more even though I used Red Heart yarn which was not my favorite to knit with. It did have the perfect colors, though! And it fit and he likes it, yay!!!!

I gave Meagan a pair of socks from the 2007 Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Club. The colorway was “Monsoon” and she just loved them. I knitted them in February and saved them for her until Christmas. She was so happy!!! I forgot to take a picture of them. Sorry!!!

I made Meagan some little mini socks from the Keychain Sock Blocker Sock pattern by Debbie Jennings (purchased at the Loopy Ewe of course!). They turned out really cute and she just loved them, but neither one would fit on the mini sock blocker that comes with the kit. I have to seriously knit looser!!!!! Each one only took about an hour. Both pair were knitted using the leftovers from socks that I had made her as gifts before.

It was a very sad and strange Christmas. My life will be changing forever soon and is a scary place to be right now. Time will tell what will happen and I am keeping my faith in God and am very thankful for all my friends and their wonderful support!

Here’s a picture of Meagan and Marcus’s little yorkie, Alyssa. She is always dressed up for the holidays in all her finery!

I will leave you with a darling picture of my little dog, Tiffany. I had some Christmas stuffed animals “decorating” my bed and she just blended right in. She is SUCH a cutie and very photogenic!

I used to quilt! A lot. For years. I even worked at the Calico Cat quilt shop and taught quilting. I did bed quilts, lap quilts, baby quilts, miniature quilts and wall quilts. I did piecing, paper piecing and needle-turned applique (I really liked the applique). Then I started knitting. And knitting and knitting and knitting and spinning. Did I mention the knitting?!?!? I tend to become slightly compulsive with my hobbies in case you were wondering.

Anyway, I have a wonderful Bernina Virtuosa 155 sewing machine that makes quilting like play. It is a great machine and is so reliable. I have two friends who I still do machine quilting for. I am their own personal quilter! They have grandsons who are the same age and they like to make identical projects and then I get to quilt them.

Here are some of the quilts I’ve done for them recently.

This one is a baby quilt for Nancy. I did a medium stipple over the whole quilt. It is so cute!

Both Bev and Nancy made a wall hanging out of this cute panel with borders. I stitched all the borders around the blocks and then did the outer borders. After Christmas, I think they are going to have me embellish them with beads, buttons and cute little hearts and bells, etc.

This is a lovely throw that Bev made. It’s also quilted with a medium stipple.

Bev made this beautiful quilt using panels and piecing around them. Notice the little “helper”! Here’s the front:

And the back!

Bev made this wallhanging with many, many little tiny pieces!

And last but not least, Nancy made up this baby quilt with panels and strips.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip into my “quilting” life!

Now, back to the knitting!!!

As you can tell from my website and former blog-posts, I do love those little, white doggies. Check out these favorite pictures of my wee little ones!

Here’s Mandie!

And Tiffany!

And last but not least, Dustin!

Now, I have a special treat. Here is a cutie, little doggie that I knitted from the Simply Knitting magazine, Issue 19, September.

You see, she has her own doggie bed, blankie, three balls for playing fetch and a special rope bone.

She was really fun to knit. I knitted her with Classic Elite Lush which is 50% wool and 50% angora so she is very, very soft. She has a little white scottie button on the back of her little hand-dyed alpaca sweater, too! Her blankie is made from some leftover Twisted Sister cotton yarn. The little “fetch” balls were felted to make them nice and sturdy.

The really funny thing is that I knitted this whole bunch of stuff at a QUILTING retreat!!!!!

Here’s what my “Antsy” Ravelry check says:

Found you!
You signed up on July 25, 2007
You are #20458 on the list.
410 people are ahead of you in line.
16927 people are behind you in line.
53% of the list has been invited so far

I am trying to be patient! So close, but still so far! I first signed up in April or May, but my email address was lost to them by some spam filter and I didn’t even know I was off the list until I checked the Antsy page and then had to re-sign up in July. Arrrgh!!! It has been a long time… Tomorrow may be the day, possibly Monday. Then it will be party time for sure!!!!!

How about a picture of a really cute, little alpaca baby and it’s mama!

I went to an Alpaca Farm today to spin and took lots of pictures. I’ll write all about it tomorrow!

Mandie says it’s time for bed!

I have been working right along on my Clapotis and have reached the 11th repeat in the straight section. I added two repeats in the increase section, so I will have to work two more repeats in the straight section before I can start on the decrease section. I want this shawl to be quite large, so I am guessing as to how big to make it since this is the first one I’ve knitted. You know how the first time you knit something, it is quite experimental. I am very happy with how it is looking!

Here’s a new photo:

I received my Harmony needle set today from Knit Picks. I was hoping they would come today when I was home and not tomorrow when I’ll be working. I switched the Options tips for the Harmony tips (size 8’s) and started knitting away. They are very nice! Not too slippery, but very smooth. I HAD to knit several rows to get a good feel for them, you know! LOL!!! I tried to get a picture of the set, but the plastic case is very shiny with my flash. The needle tips are very pretty. I like how they look with the raspberry yarn I’m knitting with!

I wrote all the sizes on pieces of paper and slipped them in the needle pockets so I’d know what size the needles were. I did this in my Options set, also. Might look a little primitive, but it works for me!

I finished another 2 oz. of spindle spun sock yarn singles. I want to ply them, but am trying to hold off. I have another 4 oz. or so to spin. Lovely fiber!!! And a closer look of the Harmony needles just waiting for me.

Back in June, there were some garage sales on the street where my mom and dad live. We were selling some stuff, too, and I had to check out the other sales that were close by. At the house next door I found this beauty:

It is made up entirely of 4″ Weave-It squares. There is a crocheted edging all the way around it, also. Some of the yarn is acrylic and some is wool. The wool squares felted after being washed so the blanket is a little wonky in certain places. I paid $3.00 for this blanket and it is one of my favorite things in the world. It is very large and smooshy. I use it ALL the time. I have some weave-it looms of my own and know how much time must have gone into this blanket. I am glad that I was given the opportunity to save it from being a dog bed and to appreciate the person who took so long to make it.

And to finish off this post, here is a picture of Tiffany!

She is JUST that CUTE!!!!!

Hi there! Thanks for coming to my brand new blog! I am the wife of a land surveyor and the mother of three grown children, one of whom is married and two who are in college and still live at home. I teach knitting and spinning during the summer at Art Fibers, a beautiful yarn shop in Chautauqua Institution, which is located on Chautauqua Lake near Jamestown, New York. I also work at the Falconer Yarn Loft, etc. during the rest of the year. I love all types of knitting and spinning and am always ready to learn new techniques. My favorite things to knit are socks and lace. I am really looking forward to writing this blog, even if it is only for my own records.

I have three little white dogs, a peek-a-poo and two maltese.

This is Mandie, our peek-a-poo. She is 14 years old.

This is our cutie, Tiffany Starr. She is a maltese and just turned 7 on the 4th of July.

This is Dustin, a maltese. He will be 13 in September.

I guess this is all for today. Please feel free to comment if you think these little pups are too cute!!!!!