Today I sat on the ground. The dry ground. The warm and dry ground. Because of this,

playing and hanging out with my friend’s new pup, she’s a 3 1/2 month German shepherd!

Some knitting,

it’s a bit further along because we watched Princess Bride

Who was the Westley character?? The film credits revealed Cary Elwes. I thought he looks just like Chase on House, but no, just a coincidence.

My girls did not get clipped close, I couldn’t do it. Maybe when the weather gets hot, and maybe that will happen in July.

their half brother Coal was being boarded at the groomer, he has a ‘long’ clip, he is also an uncle, dog relations are odd

you let this happen to me, don’t you say I look odd

oh, but now you can see my big round brown eyes

This morning I thought, maybe the peace fleece I have would work for the top color because I really wasn’t liking the idea of deep brown-too much contrast. Or maybe some Skye Tweed. I was thinking of the color, ‘Highland Cow Brown’ (isn’t that a hilarious name?). I had a bit of ‘Rosey Glow’ to check gauge. I’m not sure yet about the third color (for the collar, and I’m not sure if or how I’ll do the stitch work across the front).

i think the peace fleece-the orange/gold to the right-works better texture and gauge-wise

My friend G and I were looking through recipes trying to find a molasses cookie similar to my Grammy’s. She noted a flourless chocolate cake recipe, said it was so sweet it was inedible. ‘I want it’ said I. Made it tonight. Sweet yes, but not overly so. I guess I have a wicked sweet tooth!

it reminds me of a flourless chocolate roll that i make, though the roll is even sweeter!

Grammy made molasses cookies that are thin and crisp, made with blackstrap, no eggs, spices (cloves, allspice, cinnamon, ginger), a lot of baking soda (4 tsp!), and hot black tea. They are refrigerated, then rolled and cut…they are a bit like gingersnaps. I keep asking the French people I bump into around here, but they all grew up with a chewy thick molasses cookie. And all of the recipes I find have at least an egg. Anybody have an eggless thin and crisp molasses or ginger snap cookie recipe?

The girls are getting groomed tomorrow. The thought is that less fur may mean less mud into the house. Zuzu’s hair is 6 inches long! Gracie’s (who came to us with a pretty short clip) is half that. I spent over an hour today trying to get some of the mats out. Zuzu will do fine, she’s been twice before. But Gracie is still an unknown about some things. She isn’t very fond of me grooming her, though she did let me snip out the mats on her belly…she wasn’t having anything to do with me using the mat cutter though!

but the wind through our fur when we run is so amazing

how will you tell us apart when our fur is the same length??

Yesterday ds and I went to the movies. Saw this. Not my first choice of what I want to go to the theater for, but it was a cold and rainy day. Started this in the theater (don’t look too closely!),

made with this, ew, but I did it on my new addi’s and I am in love

Crappy picture, but notice that I dropped part of the yarn in my coffee. Hmph said I, well it is a dishcloth…

Speaking of coffee, I signed up for the Knitters Coffee Swap!!

Swatched for this (better pic of yarn below),

from Fiona Ellis’s Inspired Cable Knits, the Knots and Bark sweater

A stashbuster for me, out of Briggs and Little, 7 skeins of what I think is now called Heritage. I got this at that crazy yarn/yard sale in October. I bought all there was. I had hoped it would be enough for an entire sweater. For me. Sadly, there are only 170 yards per skein! I asked Libby at LYS (see previous post) and she, wizardress that she is, pulled the number out of thin air. I thought back in October that I looked for the company on line and didn’t find it, but after talking with Libby, I checked again, and their web site said 170 yards. Wait! I just checked the link, and it says 215, and another on line source says 272. No way! … I just got a skein, unwrapped it, counted all the strands on one side, times two=214 strands. Measured length of skein at 28 inches not very stretched out, and got 166, darn close to 170. … so 1190 yards is not enough to make a cabled sweater at size 40 inches or so. Which is why I like this pattern, here’s a better pic of the swatch and yarn ball. Oh, and yes, that is another batch of oatmeal bread that I just put in the oven.

I really like the Briggs and Little. I’m getting the better gauge to the right of the purl ridge, 18.5-19 stitches per 4 inches, on US6…I was getting 17 stitches on 7′s. I have to knit a smaller size because the gauge isn’t as for the pattern. It is rustic, but not as much so as Bartlett. I had hoped to use up my two skeins of brown Bartlett (the brown stripe to the left), but it is heavier and I don’t like how it felt knitting up with the B&L. I tried a bit of Cascade 220 (to the right here, this is the brown marl, which I don’t like with the gold, but it was just for gauge, it doesn’t look as good in real life as in the picture). It behaves better gauge-wise but it isn’t quite the same texture. I am planning to start the sweater anyhow. Hope to find something for it soon. Anybody have any Briggs and Little in a brown or rust color? Or other rustic worsted (not heavy worsted) in similar colors? But something two ply (so not lite lopi). I’m after 2 skeins or ~330 yards, and I’ll trade! Or has anybody seen this for sale around Maine or NH or MA? Will I need to drive out to NB? It looks like a 4 hour trip each way.

This storm is wreaking havoc on the coast. Houses washed out to sea. Town squares with the ocean in them. Here is our river late this morning. The tide was high at the ocean around 11:30 am, and we are some 4 hours behind on the river here, so I imagine about now it is much higher.

Here is pic from 1987 flood. Compare to low flow, here. DS and I were standing near the flagpoles in the pic I took. And check it out from the bridge, here, compared to low flow, here. On average, the river is usually about half way up those rocks from low flow pictures. Wicked cool images from usgs surface water photo gallery.

This was Saturday,

oatmeal bread came out fine, and some rolls

molasses cookies, too cakey and not dark enough…needed blackstrap

And today, two more versions of the cookies, one with melted Crisco (ew, but a couple of the old recipe versions say this-they are the darker ones on the left), the other with oil and not so much baking soda. I think they are pretty much like Grammy’s. Will have to ship them around to family to find out.

the secret? roll them thin!

A Sheep in Wools Clothing is wondering what is the flavor of your local yarn store. She’s put up some nice pictures of stores in Portland and Belfast ME.

I give you Water Street Yarns, Hallowell ME. Lots of color, sometimes chaotic and cluttered, but a welcoming place. Lots of comfy chairs. Slates Bakery across the street, you can bring your coffee and cookie in with you.

Nikki and Cubby often greet you at the door

one of many walls of color

Patterson the sheep

Kim shopping for yarn for a felted bag and Libby the owner

sock yarn and mohair

cottons and a couple of the comfy chairs

I’ve been working on these at the gym in the morning. I get maybe 4 or 6 rounds in. I started these at Thanksgiving! Then ripped them back to yarn balls in February. So far so good, but I’m slow with socks!

mt hood made with a short cuff in Fleece Artist from Little Knits

I love using up the odds and ends, and think this will be super warm.

three strands on the outside, something boucle-ey, Bartlett, another rustic wool

You can see where I ran out of one thing and merged into another…which I think is ok. Lined with Blizzard. And a fast knit, 11′s on the liner, 13′s outside.

We got 6+ inches of new snow this morning! At least half of it seems to be gone by the end of the day,

this pear tree should be dead, i think there is one inch of live cambium, it is hollow, partly rotten, we’ve hacked off the top 15 feet, but it still produces pears!

I called my isp. The had me do something called a power cycle, where you shut off the computer, unplug the modem, turn the computer back on after a minute, plug the modem back in, and !voila! it is all working as it should. Go figure.