Merry Christmas!
First things first. I finished the little Christmas something, and then somebody got a bath. This pic was too cute not to share!

Because, you know, I can’t have a dirty stinky squirrel chasing dog wearing my handknits.

The surprise was for my sister, who, at Thanksgiving went on a rant about Louie and sweaters and Christmas. So I surprised her. Everybody was waiting around the tree for presents, and then I pulled the “Wait! I need coffee! Lou, come help me!” and I put it on him in the Kitchen, and sent him running out. She loved it, and then loved it even more when she knew I knit it just for him. Custom fit, even. I knit most of it back at home, and did the final knitting once I had fit him. I ended up riping out the yoke part about 3 times. I just had to have it right. He won’t move if it’s not comfortable.

It’s very basic, two main pieces are knit, and then seamed, leaving openings for the legs. I really liked working the mock cabling. My dad liked it too, he felt it and said, it feels nice, it’s like a cable, but not a cable. My dad knows his knits!

Some Specs:

Pattern: Based on a Fiber Trends pattern, 211x, with huge mods in the numbers. Since Lou did not fit any single size exactly. I ended up shortening the belly piece after I had started to seam. I cut out a row, ripped some out, and then grafted the ribbing back on using the Kitchener stitch. I also took the collar and yoke part apart a couple of times. I had to make the belly piece longer than the back, so that it would fit the curve of his chest, and the back piece wouldn’t ride up on his neck. So basically the pattern was more of a guideline.

Yarn: I used under two skeins of Plymouth Galway, color 12. 100% Wool. I have alot left. The two skeins I used were differant dyelots, but are so close I can’t even tell in sunlight.

Needles: Addi Turbos, US 8, 5mm. The pattern called for 6′s, but I know Galway, and I like knitting it with 8′s. So I did.

This was a good knit, very entertaining. Not that I intend to make a career of knitting doggie sweaters. Once in a while will be fine. Other than this I’m working on some socks. In a few hours we’ll be going to my Aunts house for dinner. Last night we had Christmas Eve here, at my parents. I ate too much, but that’s what Christmas is for! So everybody out there, Merry Christmas, and a safe and Happy New Year!

Filed by Julia at 2:05 pm under FO!,Family,Knitting,Louie
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Hey there. Hi. I finally almost feel back into the swing of things after last weekend. Monday and Tuesday I cleaned. It’s insane what can happen to my house when one man and 4 cats are left to their own devices for 6 days. So clean I did. Yesterday I had roofers over to replace the soffit underneath my 3rd floor box gutter. You should have seen all the rotted wood they pulled out from under there, and the genius who put up the aluminum in the first place apparently didn’t think it would be a good idea to install some support brackets under the gutter, so it was by shear will and alot of luck the whole thing didn’t fall on some unsuspecting pedestrian. But it’s all better now, and it looks good as new.

So me and the fam headed up to Toronto last weekend, and man did we eat. It was also wonderful. I love love love Toronto. My sister and I walked all over, and took the subway (the most clean subway ever) and the streetcar. We shopped, but mostly just looked at everything. I made multiple trips to Lettuce Knit, including joining the regulars for the most entertaining knit night I’ve ever been to.

There were so many knitters! Including, but definately not limited to, Laura,, Megan, Stephanie, Michelle, Denny, The knitorius Rachel H., Yarn Harlot Stephanie, even, and Knitty Amy, and Ken and and and….. If you’ve ever been there, you know its a tiny place, but it’s also fabulous. So knitters were squeezed in everywhere, along both shop walls, chairs perched over baskets of yarn, standing and chatting, it was awesome. My mom and my sister were there too, my Mom knit, and my sister brought her fantastic chocolate chip cookies. I talked my Mom into a skein of Handmaiden SeaSilk, and the Knitted wings shawl. Of course all I had to do was show it to her, and she was sold! I picked up two skeins of Fleece Artist sock yarn, you know, since I was there and all….and they had just gotten an order of it that day….how perfect is that timing?
I chatted with so many knitters, Stephanie, in particular, who was just starting the 2nd of her step-ups then, and as you can see, she’s still mostly sane, and mostly sober……

I did bring a box of Vesper sock with me, and seconds after I put it down it was ravaged by sock yarn hungry knitters. It was a spectacular sight, and all night people trickled in on their way to where ever to pick up a skein or two. By the time I stopped by the next day, around 4:30-5, it was all gone. Awesome.

Also, in my next life, I want to come back as Megans’ cat-

Most of the photos I took last weekend are of the boys. The dogs Vinny and Louie.

Notice their matching red polos? I love it when they match. Also, it’s festive. They don’t mind it too much, and it’s really hysterically funny when my dad wears a matching polo too. I don’t think he did this trip, but maybe when Christmas comes up. Louie is half laying on the box of my yarn. He’s a good guard dog. He also helped with the dishes……

He kills me. He loved the turkey we had. Between that and all the walks we took him on, and all the running around, he was a very tired young man, and slept just about the whole way home. Vinge man too, but by the end of an uber urban weekend, white dogs ain’t so white anymore.

As far as my knitting, uh, yeah. I did knit alot on my Whiskey sleeve, and am about 50 rows from the cap shaping. I have almost a new sock finished. Who was I kidding when I said I would wait to start another sock? hahahahaha.
Not my woolarina sock though, after 3 false starts, I had had it with that one for awhile. So yeah, that’s me right now.

Filed by Julia at 10:35 pm under Family,Louie
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This first part of this post is a pissed off rant. If you are not interested in reading about it, please skip down to the astericks.

Okay, so I have this 6 month old Epson all in one, that I bought when my old printer’s ink valves jammed up. It’s a good machine. Convenient, if you will. Then about 3 weeks ago, it started to have issues. The paper was feeding at an angle, and stuff started jamming constantly, and the copy function wouldn’t print at all. Now I need my printer, I have yarn labels to print, and invoices, not to mention shipping labels. Oh, how I love to print my shipping labels! So I call my friendly epson tech people, they really do a good job, and after some chatter, the dude said it’s still under warrenty, (yay!) and they’ll ship out a replacement, and then I send them the defective printer. This probably would have gone perfectly smoothly, had I not gone to Michigan, and had James not been at work all day everyday. Long story short, I got my new printer today, and the USB port doesn’t work (*&$%^%^$@#$!^&!&&). *Sigh* No working USB port=No working printer.

So now I’m waiting for the replacement for the replacement. Great. So today I’m handwriting address labels, and tomorrow, I’ll be spending some time at the post office, shipping lots of fibery packages off to everyone who purchased yarn yesterday. (Thank You!)
I just got back from the copy place down the street (support your local businesses) , where I ran off some labels. It’s just SOOOOOO inconvenient. I would run out and by a cheapy number, but why? I’m trying to save money. The one good thing about all this? When it’s all done I’ll have two sets of free ink cartridges. That’s like, a savings of $100. Double Yay.
End of rant.

* * * * *

On to Michigan!! I had a great time. Sometimes when I go visit the fam, I can’t wait to get out of there and come home. This was not one of those times. I didn’t want to leave. In the summer, my parents house is better than any resort, or vacation place I have ever stayed. Lush, and green, beautiful house, big pool, decent, if humid weather. I love it. I’ll be back in three weeks for the Michigan Fiber Festival (yay!) In Allegan County, Michigan. This will be my 3rd year. It’s small, but fabulous. I ended up coming back to p’burgh late on Friday. I didn’t want to miss my weaving class, which is slowly getting very tedious. I’m tired of the sampler thing, and would rather work on an actual project.
But anyways, Michigan. My Mum’s birthday was on Thursday, she turned an undisclosed number of years young. We celebrated on Monday and Tuesday. She and my dad, and another couple flew down to St. Thomas thursday morning (Lucky Dogs), for a long weekend. They have a time share at The Ritz, and since The Ritz just finished a new section of condos, they offered my parents a 4 day 5 night stay, no charge, if they went before a certain date, and knew anyone who might also be interested in buying. They did. So they went, and had a great time, and are flying back today.
So I hung around Michigan with my brother and sister, and the dogs. I love the dogs. I believe you all know my wonder nephew, Louie V.

He’s a sweetheart, all 20 lbs of him. Then there’s my parents pooch, Vinny. I don’t think I’ve introduced him yet. He’s my dog-brother, which makes him Louie’s Uncle. Vinny is 11, and crotchety, but still has all his puppy spunkiness. He was pissed off for a long time when my sister brought Louie home, I swear it took him a good 8 months before he even started to accept Louie.
In his older age, he no longer wants his photos taken. He used to let me take all kinds of Photos, but lately, as soon as he realizes what you’re up to, he runs the other way, I’m not even kidding, and goes under my parents bed. So I have to be quick about it. He’s weird like that, but still cool. He’s about half Louie’s size, maybe smaller.

On Thursday night, even though she wasn’t there, we all went out and celebrated my moms birthday. At Mortons. Of Chicago. My dad needs to buy stock in Mortons they’re there so often, especially my sister, who walks around like she owns the place. My Dad is hugely into fine wine, so Mortons is his home away from home. In fact, my mom was telling me, some owner of some resturant everyone in St. Thomas recommends almost started a fight with him, cause my Dad was trying to explain that even though his wines were very good vintages they were all now crap because of improper storage. Seriously. His place is only open 3 days a week, and all his wines are stored out in the open, and he turns the air conditioning OFF 4 days a week. So all his wines, which should be stored at 55 Degrees F, are all baking at 90 degrees and up. Hello? This dude is dumb. Even I, who can’t begin to afford fine wines like these, know how ridicules that is, not to mention wrong.
I digress. Mortons was fun. My brother’s new girlfriend came with us, and the dogs had some good leftovers. Eveytime we come home with a silver Mortons bag Vinny does flips and cartwheels, I swear. He loves the steak. This is one of the best things ever-

The Mortons Steak Bible. They put all of there recipes in here. Steaks, sauces, desserts, if it’s on the menu, it’s recipe is here. I’m thrilled, their Blue Cheese dressing is to die for. Really, I can’t believe they give their secrets all away in this book.

And finally, some fiberness. This is a knitblog after all. Another reason I look forward to Michigan, is the no less than 8 yarn shops within a 40 minute drive of my parents house. Dude. I frequent 6 of them. I don’t always get to all of them, but I do try. I hit 3 this time, and bought this from one-

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Colortweed. MMMM. I saw this the last time I was up there, in May, and kept thinging about it. So while I was waiting for my car to get it’s oil changed, I walked over and bought some. I was going to buy one (that whole saving money thing) then couldn’t decide, so I was going to get two, then I ended up getting three. I was on vacation, after all! So these get added to the already over flowing bin of sock yarn I own. Yes, I have a problem. Yes, I’m okay with that.

SSS has been running rampant over here. I started a new jaywalker while in Michigan, completely ignoring that I am halfway through the 2nd of another pair of Jaywalkers, and the one more Sweetwater sock I have to knit, AND the two socks on the one magic loop I started out of my rock bottom colorway, that are almost to the heel. Hee. I decided to just go with it. I mean, I’m having fun knitting socks I won’t wear for a few more months yet, so what the hell. Okay, I think I’m all blogged out. This post was brought to you by the caffeine in my Diet Dr. Pepper. Did I mention I’m mostly off caffeine? Yup. It was hard, but I did it. That whole printer ordeal drove me to it. I’m not much for the soda, either, but once in awhile, a Dr. Pepper tastes damn good. Okay, now I’m done……

Filed by Julia at 6:33 pm under Family,Knitting,Michigan
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My brother turns the big 2-1 today! It’s all downhill from here Mikey!

This is him just Wee, and about 3-4 days old….

That’s my post pardum Mumma holding him, Shannon in the middle, and Me, all smiles on the end there. My dad’s behind the camera.
My poor Mum, this kid was a 10lb baby, a forceps birth, and he was two weeks late to boot.
I remember his first birthday, he was covered head to toe in icing and cupcake, I remember Shannon and I laughing our little butts off, and my grandma was hysterical, Michael was her special little guy.
These photos crack me up, he always had a sweet tooth, to this day no Ice Cream is safe….
“Don’t worry, I’ll just get my own cupcake”

“Damn, that was some good cupcake”

Mike was prolly 18 months or so in this photo, I showed it to him today, and he’s like”I was never a blond! When was I a blonde?!”

Mothers, go get your sweet baby boys and hug them lots, cause someday, they’ll be crazy, use foul language, be way taller than you, and have tattoos too….

But they’ll still be cool. Happy Birthday Mike!!!

Filed by Julia at 3:04 pm under Family
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Louie would like to say Hi to everybody, and that he is very happy to have his favorite Auntie home for a visit.

Filed by Julia at 5:41 pm under Family,Louie
9 Comments

My baby sister turns 23 today! Not so much of a baby sister, she’s 2 years, 5 months and 1 day younger than I am.
This is her about to enjoy a birthday lunch in San Diego. Yup, San Diego. That’s where I am today. She lives in Michigan with Louie the dog. Very fitting that their birthdays are a week apart. She generally celebrates the whole month of March anyway.
This is our first time in San Diego. This city is Awesome. Period. Totally worth the 4 and a half hour flight from Detroit.
I really like this 3 hour time differance thing. Pacific time agrees with me.
We’re staying right around the corner from great food and shopping, we found my sisters’ favourite place

Specifically this department,

This Nordstroms is attached to a sort of outdoor mall type place, and, De Ja Vu, I know I’ve seen this place before, and then it occured to me, I have seen this place before. Scroll all the way down to August 1st. I was halfway through her 2005 Archives, when (and this was a slap my forehead moment here) it occured to me to check her tour archives to see when she was in San Diego.
Anyways, I picked up some real estate magizines, to see what the market around here is like, and there is this $8.9 million estate, and just for fun, at 22.00 a skein, I would have to sell 406,000 skeins of Vesper to make that much. Not including taxes or fees, or any other crap. Motivating, to say the least.

Filed by Julia at 9:36 pm under Family
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