Wear a Shawl day

Tomorrow is the first ever official Wear A Shawl day.  There's a Ravelry group that's trying to make the 11th of every month a day when shawl wearers can throw off the concern of the " only old ladies wear shawls" stereotype and wear their shawls proudly, be they 8 years old or 80.

I was born for this day!  In honor of such an auspicious occasion, I present to you examples of different ways you can wear a shawl.

The Across The Shoulder (Traditional) Way: This way lets all of the people behind you see how pretty your shawl is, plus it keep your back and shoulders nice and toasty.

The Keep One Shoulder Warm While You Stare At The River Way: Similar to wearing a silk scarf, this way let's you enjoy your shawl, but keeps you from getting too warm.  (I recommend a lovely shawl pin to hold the two sides together and keep it from becoming the If This Thing Falls Off One More Time... Way of wearing a shawl.)

The As A Scarf With The Point In Front Way: This is my favorite way to wear my shawls.  It keeps my chest nice and toasty and can be worn under a coat.  (Plus it doubles nicely as a bib in a pinch.  Not that I would ever do that.  ::whistles innocently::)

The As A Scarf Way: This way works best with rectangular wraps, but will also work with long thin triangles. 

And if you love your shawls, but don't want to wear them on your body (sometimes it's just to hot.  Crazy, I know!) you can have your furniture wear them.  I haven't met a chair yet that would object to being draped in lovely yarny goodness.

You can also drape your pets in shawls, but keep in mind not all pets will wear shawls. They may not be as open minded as Winnie.

So wear your shawls tomorrow (and every day) and know that there are lots of other people out there wearing shawls too.  And none of us are "old ladies" no matter how old we may be.

Happy Wear A Shawl Day,
Joyce

Gifts and Relaxation

This past week, the knitting group had it's biannual white elephant gift exchange.  The gifts are knitting based (what else would you expect from a knitting group).  It can be yarn, notions, project bags, books, you name it. Stitch markers and pretty project bags are particularly coveted and fought over in the fray.  During the gift exchange, stealing gifts from others is not only condoned, it's encouraged.  But everyone goes home with a gift and usually everyone goes home happy.

I managed to get (I stole it from Lana after the gift I opened was stolen from me) a great gift of beautiful blue Mad Tosh sport weight in Lapis. (which is the reason I stole it because GiGi loves that color), a project bag with sheep on it (so cute! It's from Blue Tulips' Etsy Shop), and some adorable Lantern Moon crocheted sheep stitch markers.

On top of a great gift exchange, Hubbie and I got to spend the weekend at his sister Kerri's house in Pennsylvania.  "The Hotel" (Did I mention that her place is huge?) is a great place to relax and knit (and read papers and write dissertation chapters).  We spent a lot of time in front of the fire reading and knitting. (Well, I knit, Hubbie's not so fond of it.  I've decided to let this one slide.)

I've been working on Stephen West's Pogona for the past few days.  I wanted to knit with some lovely Tosh Merino Light (Rhubarb colorway) I got in November.  Pogona is a simple design that works well with highly variagated yarn.

When I get tired the stockinette shawlette, I switch to the monster lace project that I've been alternately knitting on and avoiding for the past few months (in Jaggerspun Zephyr in Garnet).  This relationship is likely to continue for quite some time because this is just the test knit.  The full size shawl will be circular.  I'll keep you posted.

Winnie got to spend some time with his Weimaraner cousin Bella. They played, ate, went on lots of walks, and then finally crashed.  They sure do love the fireplace!

Such a tough life they lead,
Joyce

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas has come and gone and a new year is upon us.  The only new year's resolution I made is to graduate.  Let's hope I stick to this one. 

Christmas was a quiet affair in my house.  It was celebrated a few days early because Hubbie was going to Louisiana to spend Christmas with his dad and siblings.  I had to stay in NYC to write (that whole graduating thing), but KT and I celebrated the day with a movie and dinner (and knitting, of course).

Hubbie, the pets, and I all got great gifts this year. 

Winnie got a tub of Jerky Treats.  He loves those things.  And then he got to ride in the car (he loves that too) all the way to Louisiana to visit the family.

The Kitties got a tall tower to play on.  And by tall, I mean taller than me.  Some would say that's not such a big feat, but you know what I have to say to those people.

Tea was not happy about being woken from his nap.  I apologized profusely and gave him kitty treats.  I'll let you know if he's forgiven me.

Hubbie got a super awesome (if I do say so myself, which I should because I made them) pair of flip-top mittens.  These are the "Soldier's Glomitt" by Beverly Quivey.  The pattern is free, well written, and easy to follow.  I measured Hubbie's (quite large, considering he is 6'5) hands, but was pleased that I only had to increase the length a little bit.  Otherwise the large size fits perfectly.

I used Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Merlot Heather.  They took about 2 1/2 balls.

And I got Tomatoes!!! Lace weight Tomatoes to be exact.  Yummy!!!

I also got an exercise bike, but it's not nearly as photogenic.  I love it. I can exercise and I don't have to go out into the unseasonably warm, but still pretty darned cold, weather.  (I don't love it nearly as much as the tomatoes, of course. I'm not that crazy!)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and have a rip-roaringly spectacular new year.

Me? Obsessed? I have no idea what you're talking about! (Deny, deny, deny),
Joyce

For the love of watermelon

Hubbie often tells me that Winnie loves me the most. I say that Winnie's favorite is whoever has the watermelon.

It also works with pineapple,
Joyce

Walk to the park

New York, like much of the country, spent last week in the grip of a heat wave.  One day during the week, Hubbie and I decided to brave the heat and walked the dog to the park.  It was ridiculously hot. (Ok, who am I trying to kid?  I start saying that when it gets above 80.)

We stopped in the shade for a while to cool down.  It was a crazy hot, hazy day.

We didn't make it to the bigger park which is only a couple more blocks away because by that point we were all hot and sweaty and more than ready to go back home to the air conditioning. 

Winnie especially.

I can't wait for fall,
Joyce

Lap Pets

Hubbie is a tall man (6'5) and has a decent sized lap which is a good thing because his lap is considered prime territory by the pets.  He'll often have two or more pets in his lap at a time.

Today I walked into the living room and saw this:

But what really made it an amusing sight was Winnie:

Poor sweetie was sitting on the sofa patiently waiting his turn.  He's such a polite doggie... sometimes.

Feeling a mix of grateful and sad that her lap's considered uncomfortably small,
Joyce

Doga Yoga

Winnie sometimes likes to do yoga with me.  This is his shaggy dog pose.

He's great at Up dog, but hasn't quite learned Down dog yet.  However, if a treat's involved, he's great at finding his Sit bones.

Good doggie,
Joyce

P.S. It turns out that other people like to do yoga with their dogs too.  Gotta love New York!

Weekend knitting

I spent most of Sunday knitting and watching Netflix.  Netflix watch instantly has transformed my world.  I rarely watch tv.  That's not to say that I don't watch any tv, but with the joy that is dvr technology, I (like much of the country, I suspect) don't watch my tv shows when they're on regular tv.  I'm much too distracted for that! (Plus one comes on while I'm at work and another comes on the night of knitting group. What was CBS thinking?!?!)

But, I only watch three shows regularly.  Which means that when I want to knit a project that is somewhat complicated, I have to search for something to watch.  Netflix has come to my rescue.  They have tons of tv shows and movies that I can stream to my computer.  I will admit that I mostly watch the PBS and History Channel shows that they have available, but Hubbie and I have recently begun watching Futurama together.

Given that it has been the spooky time of year, I've been watching a lot of shows on ghosts.  I love this time of year because I get to gorge myself of ghost stories.  Reading them, listening to them, watching tv shows on them.  So much fun.  I don't actually believe in ghosts (I think), but I grew up in a family with a tradition of telling ghost stories at get togethers.  I used to love to sit next to my mom as she told stories of the house that she lived in that she thought was haunted.  I'd get chills and goosebumps.  It was awesome!

Sadly, my family is now spread over a good portion of the country, so the tradition hasn't continued.  Instead I turn to the internet and Netflix and the ghost stories of others to give me my Halloween chills.

My glut of weekend tv watching go me through a garter stitch scarf and 70% of the shawlette version of Mercia.

Winnie the wonderdog was kind enough to model the scarf for me.  He's such a cutie (but also a total spaz. The only reason he sat still long enough to take this picture was Hubbie standing behind me holding a treat.)

It's knit in an angora wool Handspun by Jamie Harmon.  It's really quite soft and lovely.

I'm knitting the shawlette version of Mercia in the Knit Picks Stroll Tonal sock that was left over from the shawlette version of Butterfly Bush.  It is the perfect amount and the yellow shows off the stitch pattern really well.

It's about time Mother Nature realized it was Autumn,
Joyce