Happy Birthday Eli!

Yesterday was Eli's first birthday. We spent the day celebrating and making plaster paw prints. Eli gobbled up his first DQ softserve and doesn't understand why his birthday can't be everyday. Jasper and Dixie want to know when their birthdays are so they can have ice cream more often.

I promised I would tell the story behind Eli's name so here it is.... Ellen Toll Katz was one of my dearest friends and Newfie mentor. Last spring she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and she passed away from complications arising from surgery to remove it on the day before Eli's litter was born. We weren't looking for a puppy. We already had two newfs and Jasper. My life was complicated enough... thank you very much... But, Kerri and I had a running gag with Ellen that when the time came for us to get a newfie boy to show, we would have Ellen do all the work finding him, picking him out and would just tell us when to pick him up. As it would happen, Cathy Derench, Ellen's best friend and cohort in Newf Rescue, not to mention probably the breeder I respect most in this world, had a litter of 9 puppies (7 males, 2 females) due the day Ellen died and were born the day between her death and her funeral. Ellen's daughter, Tracy mentioned she thought we should have one of these puppies. Her mom would have wanted it that way. How could we resist using that logic.... As for the name.... obviously Eli loosely correlates to Ellen and his AKC registered name is MtnView's Life Goes On.

So this is a bittersweet milestone for me.

I know in my heart that Ellen sent Eli our way somehow knowing that he would be a comfort when we lost Lucy so suddenly. We were lucky that he came to us in time to learn some important lessons from Lucy before she died -- even now there are some quirky things he still does that he learned from her. Eli's arrival in here in Maine will always be tied to those losses, but that certainly doesn't diminish the joy he brings every day.

I know the other eight puppies in his litter are all wonderful, but I know for sure that we got the best one.

Happy Birthday my smart, handsome boy!

Thank you Ellen.

Tahoe Cardigan!

It's DONE! Okay, it's not blocked yet but that doesn't count... Does it? It started out as the Tahoe Cardigan from Knitty, but I tailored almost everything to suit me. I made the sleeves narrower from the elbow to the wrist;I knit the hems in the same yarn as the body rather than a contrasting color; I shortened the overall length and I gave it a little bit of additional shaping in the chest to better accommodate my more ...ahem... generous curves. In the end it is a basic beige everyday sweater. The pics are crappy but there you go.

Details:

Pattern: Tahoe Cardigan from Knitty
Yarn: KnitPicks Merino Style in Nutmeg (color 23460)
Buttons: Keith O'Connor Pottery Beads at Maine Fiber Frolic

I really love the picot edge on the sleeves and the green raku buttons. They are just enough detail to keep the sweater from being overly boring.

Jasper doesn't understand why I was disturbing his nap with all this photography....

Branching Out

I finally have actual knitting to show you... I finally finished the Alpaca/Samoyed which turned out to be a really nice heavy fingering weight; I forget the actual WPI. Believe it or not I ended up with about 490 yards of the stuff. I have decided to knit it into Branching Out from Knitty, which is a fairly straightforward lace scarf that doesn't require too many brain cells all at once. It doesn't look like much now but as is the way of lace, it will block up into something swell... I think.

I thought the second one was a bit better at showing off the halo. The Samoyed is more like angora than any of the chiengora I produced before. Blended with the Alpaca, it feels like I am knitting a cloud. I can't tell you how much I love this stuff.

Maine Fiber Frolic

Be Warned... This is a picture heavy wool porn post!!

I have just returned from my second annual sojourn to the Maine Fiber Frolic put on by the Maine Llama Breeders Assn. It isn't a behemoth like Maryland or Rheinbeck, but it is a really nice local event. I would guess that more than 50% of the vendors are from Maine and the balance are from the rest of New England.

No one can say I didn't do my share to support the Maine sheep farmers! I bought a coated Romney fleece from Raffaella Reimer at North Tempest Farm (no web page). I wasn't supposed to be buying anymore raw fleece but it was absolutely irresistible. See...



Could you resist such a fleece? If so, you are a better person than I.

Was that all I bought... well... no... I also acquired 8 oz. of hand-dyed Wool/Mohair blend from Stanmere Farm (no web page) in Fayette, ME.

AND... 8 oz. of blue/green wool from Friends Folly Farm...

AND... 12 oz. of cotton candy Romney wool that I can't figure out where I bought it, but it is the most ethereal clouds of pink. Someone needs to have a baby girl... I'm not naming names, but you know who you are...

AND a whole pound of rose/peach/ecru wool from End of the World Farm (no web page) also in Fayette, ME to spin/knit a sweater for one of the nieces. This is actually a Kerri project.

AND buttons for the Tahoe Cardigan which you will see when I finish the darn thing. I think that's everything.

Other than the buttons and the rose wool from End of the World, I have no idea what I am going to be doing with any of it. I bought it because it brought me a little joy, not because I had any agenda. I went in search of sock yarn, but for some reason I couldn't commit to any.

As I fell in love with this llama and as the event is put on by Maine Llama Breeders Assn. I thought I should show him to you.

I am a sucker for a speckled llama. Isn't he gorgeous? I know less about llamas than I do astrophysics, but I was quite taken by his handsome face and quiet charm.

That's my report from Fiber Frolic. I am already looking forward to next year.

Red, White & Newf Hat

It is a cold and rainy day here in Maine, so it somehow doesn't seem that odd to be presenting a wool/newf fuzz had in June. LOL I really like this hat and it is still hard for me to believe that red, I mean Santa Clause in your face red, natural white, and black newf fuzz could come together with so much subtlety. It is always great when something you make comes together so nicely.

I couldn't conn anyone into modeling it for me, so you get the cereal bowl/tennis ball can shot. I need less camera shy friends.

One more project off my list... WooHoo...

UFO Review

As I am still without a working wheel and without any FO to show... I thought I'd review my current UFO

1) Tahoe Cardigan -- The pieces are all knitted, I just have to seam, buttonband and block. The sleeves took forever as I reworked them to be more tapered as I don't like bell-ish sleeves. Luckily, I only had to reknit it once. I also chose not to do a contrasting trim... You will see soon.

2) Live Dangerously, Don't Swatch Hat -- I love this pattern. I am using the red, white & newf yarn to make a simple textured hat. I should have something to show soon as I just have the i-cord edging to do.

3) Eunny's Print-O'-the-Wave Stole -- I have to admit that I got scared by the lace and gently backed away from this one... Summer is such a perfect time for lace that I will surely get back to it soon. Really. I think this one is less than 10% complete.

4) Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle -- I am 66% finished with this one... There's no excuse. I thought I was going to run out of yarn so I put it aside until I acquired the additional skeins, but by the time I did my enthusiasm had moved on to other things. %sigh% You can see a photo of DynamiteKnits version here.

I also own the yarn for about 6 pairs of socks not yet started, but promised to folks already. I also have a long overdue vest I promised someone more than a year ago. This is in addition to all the spinning I have committed to and getting ready to teach Spinning Dog Fuzz, which involves spinning and knitting samples of 10+ breeds blended with wool, alpaca or silk.

There are not enough hours in the day.

%sigh%

Did I mention that the Maine Fiber Frolic is next weekend... I will inevitably pick up three or four new projects. I am hoping not, but I can already hear the siren song of the fleece tent.