woolythyme

new adventure....

 

I'm under no illusions....there is undoubtedly not a single solitary person still checking on this blog.  BUT....just in case (oh, the optimist reigns) I wanted to let you know about my new covid-quarantine adventure.

stephanieyoung.zenfolio.com

This is actually my second attempt at writing what may be the final blog post from this platform.  I wish I could assure you that you are going to be clicking on the most wonderful website with a blog as an added bonus....but you all know how technologically impaired I am.  Cell phones still send me into a tizz.  (And Lordy!  Face Time!!!  You should have seen me last week!  But that's another story.) I have managed to upload a couple folders and a practice blog post.

I said this was my second attempt because I wanted to make sure that the above link worked correctly...and when I clicked on it in the Preview section here it took me directly to  Stephanie Young Photography in Texas.  That's not me.  I think she does weddings.  I don't.  I'm in Kentucky.  I do flowers and the kind of stuff you could never make a living shooting.  If you should want to find me you might have to google stephanieyoungphotography and zenfolio.  You might make it to my new location. I hope so. This same dogwood photo is there, too.  I can't check it again, because typepad promply kicked me out of my post.  I'm sure it is user error but I'm not taking a chance.  

I do hope you all have been coping well with our new normal and finding things to entertain you.  Until my latest foray into website technology...my days consisted of walking Shira four-five-eleven times a day, with and without my camera.  

She's convinced she really is PrincessoftheWorldDogYoung and hopes this never ends.

Hope to see you at the other blog!!!

the trifecta....

The three colored (purple accent) cashmere cowl by Joji Locatelli.... made from stash yarn and not cashmere... is done.  

 

It matches the three colored (lime accent) cashmere cowl  and the three colored (red accent) cashmere cowl already living in my closet.

 

I think I'm done with this pattern for awhile!

Vacation...

Hi, my Friends.

Shira here.  Yes.  I'm still ShiraPrincessoftheWorldDogYoung.

And if you had any doubt about that...let me tell you about my vacation.

I arrived last Monday at my old home (the Humane Society)...not as an inmate, but as a guest.  They board special dogs...and I'm special.  When I got there, I was a little shy, but I hadn't even had a chance to take my coat off, when there was the first squeal.   SSSSSSHHHHHHH-IIIIII-RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAA!!!!  And people came running from e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e!!!  Within a couple minutes, my head was bright red....the Director wears red lipstick and she kissed me all over.  People were running from the back kennels and from the grooming room.  I was a star.  I was overwhelmed.

When I lived there, I had a very nice kennel in the back.  When I vacationed there this time, I had the run of the whole office.  I had cookies.  I got a massage.  I got a bubble bath.  I got to greet every single person who walked through the door.  And I got a whole lot of attention....even from strangers.  I saw all my old friends, and my special man. It was wonderful.

I would have written all about this sooner, but mom forgot to pack the computer for me. I honestly can't wait to go back.

Sometime.

Just not right away.  I'm exhausted.

I needed to come home to rest.

There's no place like home.

 

PS....Mom's been messing with the blog.  It looks weird.  It's a work in progress.  I think I need my picture on the header with a crown.  What do you think?

holding my own...

Two weeks into the new year....and I'm still attacking the stash. (For someone with the attention span of a gnat, this is very very good.)

'My cup of tea' socks are finished.  The leftover ball of yarn got tossed into the bag holding the sock yarn blanket.  One skein out of the yarn closet.

Next...

Joji Locatelli's Three Color Cashmere Cowl...out of stashed yarn, not cashmere. I've made this cowl twice before, and obviously love it or I wouldn't have made it the second time.  It's portable, and easy, and you can use any kinds of leftovers in the stash.  Three colors?  Four would work, as would five or six.  The black yarn was gifted from a dear high school friend who was helping HER friend who closed her yarn shop.  The grey was bought in Damariscotta, ME three years ago, and came from a small spinning mill on PEI. Souvenir yarn...which counts as a souvenir and not officially 'stash', but today I'm counting it as stash. And the purple?  Honestly...who knows?  One skein of mystery yarn.  This cowl won't use up all the yarn, but I'm making a dent.

OOPS.

Stash diving, I found this UFO. (what was I thinking when I started this?? STRIPES?!?) If only it wasn't using my FAVORITE FAVORITE Jamieson Spindrift....sigh.  I couldn't throw it out...and I'm NOT leaving it 'UF' forever.  I'm ripping this apart.  I'm adding it back into the stash.

Four skeins out of the stash....four skeins into the stash.

 

Holding my own. 

Princessoftheworld.....

Hi, my friends.

Shira here.  ShiraPrincessoftheWorldDogYoung.  

I think I know you all well enough to tell you my story.  Sit down.  It's not a pleasant one.

See that lumpy thing on my right paw?  Well, I have them all over myself.  EVERYWHERE.  They are some of my souvenirs from some horrible skin problems someone allowed to fester all over my body.

Last May, the local humane society got a call and they rescued me.  They are my heroes.

This was me.... last May.

I think whoever took this picture of me was so upset about how I looked that they took this crooked picture.  It's not very good.  But, yep...that was me.  See my toenails?  That was after they were cut as much as they could cut them.  They were so long and curly that I couldn't really stand any more.  I was very very sad.

I had all kinds of medicine.  I had all kinds of vitamins.  I had a couple teeth extracted.  And, I had lots and lots of love.  I actually grew a whole lot of my hair back.  I'm still nudie along my lower back and hiney.  There is the teensiest fuzzy bit of hair in a couple places.  Maybe I'm still growing some hair.  I'll keep you posted.  But you know what?  I don't really care.  I have a real snazzy PINK!!! coat that covers most of my bald places, so I stay pretty warm on walks.  I have a very loving family now.  

And I even have an adopted auntie who loves me a whole lot, too.

She bought me these cookies.  SEE?  It's official. 

I really AM ShiraPrincessoftheWorldDogYoung!  Cookies don't lie.

Dreaming in the new year....

Hi, my friends.

Shira here.  Yes.  ShiraPrincessoftheWorldDogYoung.

Look at my Christmas present!!!!  I love it so much.  It almost covers the bald spot on my neck.  Of course, it doesn't do a thing for the bald spots on my legs and back and hiney, but who cares?  (I really can't see those, so I don't think they really count.)

Don't I look beautiful?

When I was adopted, I came with a red collar.  Now, don't get me wrong.  Red is a fine color, but I'm a GIRL and needed a real girlie colored collar.  Purple might have worked.  Yellow?  It would have looked nice with my grey hair.  But, let's be honest.  There is nothing more girlie than PINK!!!  Unless, it's pink and rhinestones.  

OOOOOO....maybe the rhinestones will come later!  

Life is just one dream after another....and some even come true!

strip knitting....

Strip knitting.  No relation to strip poker.  (sorry to disappoint)

It's actually pretty simple...you make a strip, then attach a second strip as you knit, and a third, etc.  A wonderful way to use up bits and pieces of leftovers...

I made this blanket years ago from leftover sock yarn...left over from a mitered square sock blanket.  Leftovers from leftovers.

This 'probably-never-to-be-finished' blanket is using leftovers from the above leftover blanket that we all now know was knit from leftovers from another blanket using leftovers.  Follow that?

BUT...another good reason to use the strip knitting technique is to eliminate pooling with varigated yarn.  In this case...you change balls of the same yarn at regular intervals as if you were doing intarsia knitting...and follow the pattern as written.  Years and years ago I made a pullover sweater using  Noro's Kochoran yarn---a very bulky, wool/angora/silk blend that made this sweater SO HOT I NEVER WORE IT.  Actually, that's not quite true.  I wore it once, and not only did I feel as if I was in a steam bath, but it was so bulky I looked like the Michelin Man after Thanksgiving dinner.  

The yarn, though, is so beautiful.  It's Noro after all.  Beautiful, pricey Noro, and I couldn't bring myself to toss it.  At some point (years ago as opposed to years and years ago) I decided to rip it out; in my recent quest for stash to bust I came across a baggie full of it.

So, I knit another pair of Malabrigo Hand Thingies mitts.  I love them.  (check)  I used up almost the whole baggie of old yarn. (check)  HMMMMMM.  Wasn't this a sweater at one time?  oops.

Another dive into the stash, and look what I found...

 

The sweater...minus the sleeve I had frogged.  Oh, this yarn is so wonderful....and there is so-o-o-o much of it left.  A shawl!  More gift mitts!  A cowl!!  Maybe a cozy scarf!  Why didn't I finish frogging it when I attacked it years ago?

Well, let me TELL you why.  Unknitting strip knitting is MORE fiddly than knitting it.  

At one point I was juggling and untwisting 7 balls of yarn.  

I ended up with 8...and assorted ends and bits that got tossed.

 

It took the entire Rose Bowl Parade to unravel...

and this was just the other SLEEVE.

 

I've added another baggie full of yarn to the stash.  At the moment, I'm knitting like crazy, not buying any yarn, and yet still adding to the stash. This isn't the way it's supposed to work.

this time i mean it.....

New Year..almost..and same old resolution, which in the past has been little more than a suggestion.  This time I mean it.  Really.  It's time to knit down the stash and let's finish up a few UFOs while we're at it.  Reminder to self:  this means you cannot ADD to the stash while reducing it.

 

Since this actually was last years resolution, I suppose it's OK to show my 'now' progress towards 2020.  

First up is Malabrigo Hand Thingies, a free pattern on Ravelry.  This falls in the 'UFO' category; I bought a skein of Kureyon for this while on a trip to Maine in October.  I bought one skein and the pattern takes TWO skeins.  The shop keeper wasn't feeling well that day, and even though she knew I was going to make THIS pattern...of course, there was a shop model...she only sold me one when clearly that wasn't going to cut it.  I could have double checked...and didn't.  I'm a big girl knitter.  I know better.  So, one mitt has been sitting in limbo since I got home because, naturally, there was nothing in the stash that could come close.  I ordered.  The yarn came.  And now I have the first Christmas gift to go in the Gift Stash for 2020.  I'd say this is sort of a win-win-done.  (The El Salvador bird is setting there to prove that all these colours go together.)

 

 

Next...a pair of My Cup of Tea socks using some Hauteknit Pampered Sock Fingering Weight yarn bought at a Great Yarn in Chatham, MA in 2016.  Not deep stash, but it's lingered there long enough.  The yarn is lovely, but what was I thinking when I bought this colour?  This will be a big check-off-the-list when done because I don't like it.  

 

 

And last (that I'm going to show you today. Really?  You think this is all I have on the needles??  HA! You Dreamer You)  is Winter on my Mind by Melanie Berg, who we all know is brilliant!  The orange just got added to the stash last week BUT!!!! the grey has been in deep stash for years...and years...and years....and has made several beautiful shawls.  There was one lonely skein left over.  Sometimes you have to buy something to use up something else.  

That makes perfectly good sense, right?

 

What are YOUR knitting resolutions this year?

Merry Christmas....

There was just a little bit of Christmas knitting....and....phew....it's done!

 

Merry Christmas, friends.

Party animal....that's me!

Hi, my friends.

Shira here.  (That's ShiraPrincessoftheWorldDogYoung in case you forgot.)

I'm resting.  I just saw the last of my new friends out the door and I'm T-O-T-A-L-L-Y pooped (oops, that word gets saved for special occasions) beyond tired.

I went to another party tonight.  It was the second party I have ever, ever been to (I can't count Thanksgiving because I had only been living here two days and I spent that whole evening on the sofa away from all the people). It has been  exhilarating but exhausting. The first party was last week....Daddy was out of town, so Mom invited some of her knitting friends over to knit and to eat.  Even though I don't knit, I was allowed to come.  I guess because I'm a girl.  We were all girls there. I have heard this kind of gathering referred to as a hen party, but let me assure you, there were no hens here.  I would have noticed.

I very cautiously greeted each and every person to arrive and allowed them to scratch my head and gush over me....all while keeping a keen eye on my mom.   I stayed in the room the whole time.  My bravery impressed even me.  I didn't even try to eat off anyone's plate.  I did heartily sniff a napkin one time, but I wouldn't dare touch it.  Some of the plates were even on the floor.  Nope.  Wouldn't think of venturing a lick.

Since I fared so well at THAT event, I was invited to another.  (See, I really DO deserved the PrincessoftheWorld title!!!)  This was a bit more challenging because there were a whole lot of people here.  It was Dinner Club.  Lots of people/little house. But, my tactic for the first party worked so well, I thought I'd try it again.  Sniffy greeting, pause for a head scratch, move on.  There were people every where I looked.  I know I got my head scratched by the same people a few times, which wasn't my intention, but what the heck?

My main focus was keeping my mom in my sight at all times and this was a tremendous challenge.  From my vantage point, there were a whole lot of black pants walking around.  Once again....I didn't bark, I didn't steal anyone's food, I didn't even move anyone when they sat in my spot on the sofa.  All this good behavior was totally exhausting.

I'm going to take a nap....for a week.

Love,

ShiraPrincessoftheWorldDogYoung