This is Mr. Nikki, once again. He's gone now, but he was our Halloween cat for 16 years. In his memory I'll be dressed all in black for work!

Happy Halloween!
;-)

It's finished!

Here is the brick doorstop all finished! Isn't it pretty? Mom really did do a good job. Anonymous asked if it was to be a doorstop and, yes, that's correct. Thanks for asking! I'm really pleased with the end result. I sure do hope Helen and Chris will be, too!
;-)

This is my project for this afternoon. My daughter and son-in-law picked this brick cover from a group of completed projects from my 91 year old mother. Mom did this many years ago and it was never put onto a brick, so when Helen chose this to have in her home I said I would finish it for her. We are going to Helen and Chris' for Thanksgiving and I will take this to them all finished. It isn't too hard and they will get a lot of use out of it in their new home.
I'm happy to be able to put some of Mom's things into use. She knitted a lot, but I got her started in cross stitch and needlepoint many years ago and she did a beautiful job with her needlework. She never sewed much, so I did most of her finishing anyway. I have a couple of cross stitch items to do for myself, too. Should be fun and bring back some good memories.
;-)

Today's slide show

This slide show is our Outdoor Kitty at his best. OK is a real "ham." This slide show was really easy to make and you can do it, too!
;-)

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

OK likes my knitting, after all!

Although I caught him with his eyes closed, OK is starting to show interest in my knitting. He won't sit right next to me, but when I put down my knitting, he reaches out to see what it's all about. I'm using my Denise needles, as can be seen, and am working on a shawl out of a beautiful burgundy shade of merino wool. It's really nice!
;-)

Soctoberfest!

This is my newest sock yarn from Scout and I'm going to try to get started on a pair of socks for myself with this. It is yummy!! I can hardly wait. I had Tom try on the short socks the other night and they're too small for him, so I'm going to lengthen them and give them to Helen, who's feet are smaller. She doesn't care for short socks, however. Now I have to find something in my stash to knit for Tom. I'm looking for a scarf yarn for him, too. Something tweedy with a brown or tan base color. I've bought a Noro yarn on Ebay and hope it arrives soon. Maybe it will work for Tom's scarf. We'll just have to wait and see.

;-)

One of my favorite pictures and a great memory

This is a picture of Morro Rock in the bay at Morro Bay, CA. My family moved there when I started high school in 1960 and my mother still lives there with a gorgeous view from her home. Mom was an avid knitter. Each fall as my sister and I would be starting school we would go to the stores to buy new skirts and then Mom would take our skirt to the yarn shop to find matching yarn to knit a sweater. When I started college, I had several sets of handknit sweaters with matching skirts. Wasn't I lucky? Mom is now 91 years old and cannot knit anymore with major arthritis in her hands. She still wears a lot of handknit sweaters and they still look beautiful. I'm trying to carry on the tradition with knitting for my whole family. It's fun! Socks, scarves, sweaters, etc!!!

Short Socks are done!

These short socks were finished last night and will be given to Tom today, as long as he shows up for a visit. They were made with Steinbach Wolle, Sockenwolle, Art. 39, from Austria.

My other kitty, Pumpkin

This is Pumpkin! She's about 9 years old and fat and sassy. Here she's sitting on the kitchen table, which is one of her favorite spots, because she can look out the window and watch the birds and the whole world go by. She is allowed to go out, but rarely does. She's really a big chicken! You can't see it here, but her tail is about 5 inches long and bent. She's truly an original and we love her dearly. Right now we're fighting some allergies with her, but she's healthy otherwise and not diabetic (the Vet checked!)
In the evening she usually sits on my DH's lap while we watch tv. She would sit on mine, but my knitting bothers her too much. I can't convince her to just sit quietly and let the knitting rest on her back, or for her to sit next to me, either.

28 October Ramblings

I went to Ben Franklin the other day to take advantage of their 1/3 off sale and had good luck. I'm providing a raffle basket in November at the VLA conference and I purchased several knitting items today to put into the basket. I got a knitting beginners kit, with tools and a book, 8 skeins of Lion Brand yarn for a lap sized afghan and 2 skeins of Lion Brand chenille for neck scarves. Also a package of knitting bras and two pair of circular needles. I think these will make a great basket for the raffle. Hopefully some people at work will contribute more knitting things, too! Fran told me yesterday that she would contribute some books and patterns, so this should be a great basket for the raffle.
I am currently knitting two linen hand towels from the Mason Dixon knitting book with the Euroflax yarns. I'm also knitting a pair of socks, and have started the Knitpicks FairIsle cardigan. There's a shawl in the works in a beautiful burgundy merino yarn. Who knows what else I have partially finished! I am constantly starting things and occasionally finishing. ;-)

A Great Time for my Knitting

I received and wound some new yarns in the past week. I've almost finished a new pair of short socks for Tom. I'm currently knitting two different Euroflax Linen hand towels, too. The beautiful merino/alpaca combination in a gorgeous wine color will be something like a pull over or a pocket shawl. Can't decide. My real favorite is the Soctoberfest yarn from Scout. I received a new book at the library today, too. It is Arctic Lace and it will help me knit my lace scarf out of the skein of Qiviut I bought in Anchorage this past August. I can hardly wait.

I have started on the Qiviut and am very frustrated. I cannot seem to work the lace pattern without dropping stitches. I don't believe I'm actually dropping them, just not coming up with the same number each row. Somehow the number gets lower, so I think I'm forgetting a YO or something. I've put it away for a little while until I feel more like attacking it again.

I started a swatch of the wine colored merino/alpaca yarn and it's knitting up beautifully. I can hardly wait to decide what to make with it. Maybe even a simple cardigan. Who knows?
I absolutely must have something to knit in the evenings and am almost finished with the short socks, so I'm trying to get ready for something soft and easy to occupy me while watching tv. Some nights I get more time than others. When the tv is good for watching I can really get some good knitting done, but when my DH surfs the tv channels and drives me crazy, I can't knit. I have to read or play on the computer to occupy my mind more.

I'm including a picture of the latest finished socks. They are made from Opal Zwerger Yarn in Sept. 2006 (Farbe Partie75% Scherwolle 25% PolyamidKnit) from Learn to Knit Socks—Peri-Twinkle toes for the cuff (a cable stitch)Cast on 60 stitches using size 2.75 double point bamboo needles .

That's all for this post. ;-)

More about the shelf

I have tried to change a few things on here and have made a few mistakes, but I'm learning each and every day. Maybe even more than once a day, I learn something about blogging with this blog.

This kitty is OK. He adopted us and before we had him neutered he lived outdoors, so we nicknamed him Outdoor Kitty. Well....we fell in love and officially adopted him, having him neutered and then allowing him indoors. He still loves to go outside, several times a day, but he is more than an outdoor animal, so we've changed it to OK. He knows he has a good thing, living with us, and he makes it very clear that he loves us, too. He sits in his own chair in the family room, along with sitting near the computer. Occasionally he deigns to have us pet him, but he's not a lap cat. In the room with us at all times, petting when he wants it, but no closer, most of the time.

That's it for now!

;-)

Ramblings

In memory of Mr Nikki, I'm posting his picture to celebrate Halloween. He was an 16 year old cat when he left us and we loved him dearly. He had such character and charm. I miss him a lot.

He would sit next to me while I was knitting and would bat at my needles and play with some of the yarn, but the funniest thing he did was to drag my knitting out of any opened bag and literally drag it across the room to make a bed with it. He LOVED my knitting, possibly more than I did.

We have two other cats now and love them, too. They don't even know what my knitting is. One of them, OK, loves to sit by the desktop computer, right next to the mouse, and be petted, so we sometimes call him the Computer Kitty. The other one, Pumpkin, (pictures later) doesn't like my knitting because it keeps her from my lap quite a bit. If she would just learn to let it rest on her back, everything would be fine.

I'm knitting several things right now, but the main one is a pair of short socks for Tom, my son. I'll post a picture when they are finished. I'm also getting ready to start a pair for myself out of my wonderful Scout yarn. It is gorgeous!!!

That's all for this morning! ;-)

First thing on the shelf is books!

This is my first attempt to post on blogger and I have great hopes that pictures won't be an issue. I've tried Bloglines to blog and couldn't upload pictures with any ease. I want this to be easy!!

In this picture, I'm the one on the left. I'm a Reference Librarian and I purchase medical titles for my library, among other things. This is the newspaper release photo when the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation donated to our library to purchase books for our patrons to read. I completed this project in August 2006 and really, truly enjoyed this effort. They were very generous to us.