Marnie, speak! Good girl.

I’m finally back from my trip and while there were many wonderful aspects I’m VERY glad to be home. The wedding was lovely and I hope the bride and groom are getting some much needed rest in lovely Hawaii. There was really very little down time so I feel completely drained but I did finish the dragon hoodie (except for closures) and am nearly done with the poncho. I hope to have pics up of both very soon.

While I was gone, Sarah of And She Knits made a lovely interpretation of my Flapper Hat She's not a crocheter so she knit the flower instead to go with her beautiful scarf.

The colors and stitches have a lovely vintage bohemian elegance to them. I'm so impressed. Fiber arts are a great way to make something uniquely your own and I love when people can take that plunge and see past the original design to something that has their own personality.

The adorable and talented Bonnie Donaghy models her Nautilus hat.

I think it looks great on her.

The Dragon Hoodie now has an arm. I doubt I'll have time today to finish the second arm today so the project will be traveling to the east coast with me. I will probably finish the bulk of it on the plane ride there. Now, I need only decide what clothing to jettison in favor of more yarn.

am endlessly optimistic that I'll have plenty of time to knit, but even if it’s just the flight out and back again, there's a solid 15 hours of good old stick and thread time.

Today will be all about getting the proverbial ducks in order before I go. You know, ducks like, um, packing and then running around figuring out what I forgot to pack. I’m only gone for five days but my Southern California blood is already chilly thinking about nearly Autumnal New England. Send your warm thoughts my way.

Ok, so my baby boa design is pretty simple, but you have to admit, this is pretty similar. Of course, I like my design better ;o)

Ok, in real news, the Dragon Hoodie is coming along very well. Here it is up to this point:

I've just cast on for a sleeve and hope to have at least one done today.
As you can see, I prefer to finish as I go. It keeps me motivated.

I leave for NH early Thursday morning so today or tomorrow will be my last blogging day for about a week, unless I get easy access to a computer.

The Dragon Hoodie is making great progress and I'm actually excited to offer this pattern to everyone because of that. My original version used a Red Heart yarn which is nearly kid proof and very low maintenance but was miserable to knit with. It seemed like the yarn was constantly falling apart, splitting or snagging on a needle.
Catnap has been a sheer joy to use. It's so soft it just glides over any needles I use (I've been using a pair of Audis for the ribbing and a my Denise Interchangeable for everything else.) The yarn goes pretty far too. A 50 gram spool got me through the hood and three quarters of the body. Another spool should cover the rest of the body and the sleeves.
Ok, enough chat, here are some pictures.


Here's the hood. Thank you to Schloop for modeling for me.


Here's the body. I hope to finish up the back today and then start on the sleeves.


This is a detail of the hem. It's worked in seed stitch and I used a tubular cast on to give it a nice clean edge.

Yup, I'm a knuckle dragger, not just because I have monstrously long arms. Noooooo. I'm a knuckle dragger because I'm naive enough to think that the California government is like the crotch doctor. What, pray tell, do I mean by that? Well, I assumed, in my infinite wisdom that when I got a jury summons notice a month and a half before the date I would need to attend, that they'd send me a little reminder note closer to the date. Why on earth would I think that? What an excellent question for which I have no answer.
So today, I went to the mailbox and saw a rather terse note from the state informing me that my behavior might be a bit, shall we say, short sighted and that it would behoove me to attend my new jury summons date.
I think I'll do that.
I think I'll also put on my calendar.
I think I'll also write myself a note.

In knitting news, I've started my Dragon Hoodie in Catnap. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to work with this yarn.

I've finished the hood and have cast on the front and back of the body. I hope to have pictures up soon of my progress.

The lovely and talented Teresa Wong sent me this wonderful picture of her Nautilus Hat, yesterday.

She was also kind enough to point out a problem in the pattern, for which I'm eternally grateful. It helps me and everyone else when other people let me know about problems they find in my patterns.
Thanks so much, Teresa.

In other news, knitting at work went well. I just shut my office door and gave my self 35 minutes of knitting rest and relaxation. It didn't feel long enough but it was a great way to break up the day.

Several of the women I work with know I knit and have expressed an interest in learning so I've invited as many people as I could to consider joining me for a weekly S&B. There seems to be interest, but in my experience, I've found that more people think they want to do something than actually end up doing so. For me, though, an S&B only has to be my supplies, me and a comfortable place to sit, so it's not a huge loss if I'm knitting by myself. If anyone has suggestions for motivating folks at work, let me know.

On that note, it's time for me to get ready to go.

I think I'm going to just do it, I'm going to pack my little knitting bag and try to find some time to take a lunch break. And, by launch break, I mean a knit break, of course. I usually eat at my desk so I can get more work in, and I while I love KIPing, I generally don't like to be a distraction to others at work. I actually work in the basement (not as bad as it sounds) far from my colleagues, I may just shut my door to my office and knit there. We'll see.

In other news, I've been asked to design a pattern for a book. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing I shouldn't be letting any cats out of any bags, so let's call it "super secret number deux."

And finally, good old Leo brought our sweet pup to Santa Barbara and the surrounding area, yesterday, and they had a grand time.

Here is a picture of them en route.

This doesn't seem significant to you, but 6 months ago, Panda was inconsolable in the car, she would drool and shake and hide under the seat. We had been working for years to help her work through it. We'd only take her in the car when it was to a place she loved going and we did so weekly or more often. We finally put her on some medication that calms her down and she has never been happier. Some people bristle at the idea of giving a dog anti-anxiety medication but it really has seemed to improve her quality of life, and, in the end, that's what's important to us.

Here is a picture of Panda meeting and greeting at the beach.

It's small but that's because Leo took the pic with his phone.

So that's that. Time to get ready for work.

Please insert you favorite cliche about Mondays here. Thanks.

Generally, when my alarm goes off in the morning, I snooze once, lightly, and get up without a problem, but this morning I got nine more minutes of deep-dead-dream-about-wacky-things kind of sleep which always means it's going to be slow going. How does anyone survive without coffee? I hope I never have to know.

Knitting is productive but I'm finishing off the second part of that super secret mystery project so nothing to post on that. I should be done tomorrow or the day after and then I can get back to pseudo public knitting.

I want to send some big warm love to Jody of Savannah Chik and Julia from Mind of Winter. Both blogged to my site recently and said things that were so kind I couldn't help but blush. Gee wilikers and gosh.

Oh, and before I forget, I finally got a pair of shoes to wear to that wedding for which I made the shrug. They are super simply little brown flats that look a little like ballet shoes. They don’t necessarily match but I think they’ll look cute and considering the wedding is fairly “shoes optional” I figure it’s nothing to stressing over.

Thank you all for reminding me that a couple of unkind comments are hardly a factor in the sea of sweetness that abounds out there. I fought the urge to post a reply to that thread in hopes of letting them know that there are humans behind those links they post. I'm going, instead, with the mom style philosophy that only people who think poorly of themselves need to spend all that time ripping apart others.

Enough of that, then.

In other news, zipping about the internet I found that Diana of d-made has made a lovely version of my Nautilus Hat. Great job Diana.
She also pointed out that my pattern doesn't make it clear that the woman's version of the hat requires YO for the increases, so I'm going to make that edit post haste.

Knitting news is otherwise fairly uninspiring. I think I’ve finally come up with a design that I like for my stainless steel yarn. I’ve ordered some more of the yarn in its un-dyed color which I believe is a creamy white. I love the look of deep dark red next to creamy white. It just pops for me. This will be another “on the fly” style design that I’m going to have to work out as I go along.

In case you didn’t see my post about the yarn, earlier, here is a picture of it:

When knit it gives a very organic textured effect, not unlike river rocks, in my loopy mind.

It sometimes worries me that I dream about knitting, especially when I'm thinking a lot about a particular project. Right now I'm trying to decide how I want to work up my stainless steel yarn. It's highly textured, so the stitch will be STst, but what to do with it? Well, the knitting fairy blessed me with odd dreams about solutions which I may be playing with soon.
All I can say is that I'd rather dream about knitting than dream about work.

When someone places comments on my blog I get a little email with the text. Getting one of those while I'm at work completely makes my day. I just wish I had a means of thanking more of you out there individually.

I think my dog is cuter, smarter, sweeter, and better behaved than any other dog in the universe. Of course, if you have one, your dog is a close second ;o)





Addendum
Hmmmm....
I use sitemeter to track my traffic. I can tell me from where someone linked to me. Normally, it is a wonderful thing. It's so motivating to think people like the designs I make. Well, I suppose I should have felt thoroughly warned when I saw a link for a group called "Knitflame" but my curiosity is oh-so-powerful.
If you happen to be a yahoo group member of something else, you can join the group and see the thread here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/knitflame/message/36949

For those who don't want to join the thread, the opening post says this:

"What the f- is gorgeous about these exactly"

and then has a link to my very first pattern, ever, my leg warmers. *sigh*

Check out the cute picture my friend George took on Saturday night. We all went back to a favorite hangout of ours, the Canal Club in Venice, CA. It wasn't the same without our friend T-Bird spinning, but it was a good time. We even met a new couple, Elena and Marty, who were just as lovely and sweet as could be.

Great night, indeed.

In knitting news, my mysterious purple fishnet piece is completed and awaiting unveiling at a later date. I have been making poncho squares while dreaming up possibilities form my stainless steel yarn. I just wish there were more knitting hours in my day. I’ve been considering bringing my knitting to work for some lunch time yarn bonding, but I generally eat at my desk so it's probably not worth packing everything up each day and unpacking it at night.

I've been plugging away at my piece made from Tai Chi but I can't tell you the details, and if you think it's for a Knitty project, you would be mistaken.

I will give you a sneak peek, though:


Think purple fishnet. Hmmm, the options abound.

Ok, so I basically lied, I said I wasn't going to post a picture of the piece on but here it is anyway. Yup, two opposing posts within a few minutes. That's what coffee does to me.



That's the dress I plan to wear it with too. It's for an outdoor wedding of a dear friend of mine and shoe attire needs to be quite casual, so I still need to decide how to adorn my feet. That, though, is not an interesting topic for a knitting blog.

I really need to model this, as flat, it just seems so, well, flat, but I don't have time right now, so try to use your imagination.

Click the image to see a larger view of the piece.

It's a glorified shrug in that it's really just meant to keep one's arms warm and would be worn over something else. I suppose a more brave woman than I could wear it alone. It's basically done, I'm just finishing up the closure. I may make some small accent to cover up the little overlap and hook and eye but, for all intents and purposes, this piece is done. When I can, I’ll post a picture of me in it so you can really see what it should look like.

In other news, I have this lovely yarn in my possession.


Can you see the yarn makeup? That's Cashmere, Bamboo and Silk.
It's not actually as shiny as my flash would have you believe, but the color is fairly close. It's a lovely plum purple shade.