or how to remedy mitten problems

Not much help for these, my everyday utilitarian Bartlett mitts, about 3 years old now

i could redo the thumbs…

I made these before I knew to do the rib in a smaller needle, and I didn’t pay very much attention to how I like them to fit (snugly)

LaGran Mohair, lots of cush appeal

But huge and hard to keep on. I tried shrinking them, hot water and dryer, but that didn’t work. So, scissors to the rescue. And some fancy stitching… now frankenknitting = design feature

they do look a little funny, but they feel great, and they stay on!

Also made up a quick pair of wool mittens. I didn’t think I had enough of the red, but in the end I could have made these as all red. Oh well, they are meant to be utilitarian.

I love this wool. It’s from French Hill Farm, and is a lovely coopworth. I got this yarn as a couple of odd skeins in a sale bin at the Fiber Frolic a few years back, loved it then, and tried to find her again… I saw her finally this last year, but by now I have way too much yarn and she didn’t have anything in a sale bin. But it is really lovely yarn, and I really like the subtle color changes, and the deep hues to the colors.

Pet news:

And then there were four

yet again, they pushed one of their crew out

I thought this story was on the blog someplace, but I can’t find it. These fish came to us when the kiddo was about 4 (he’s 12 now). He asked the magic show guy if he could have one of the goldfish. The guy gave him the whole bag, with six fish. They lived, and grew, and a few years ago they all pushed the biggest one out. We found it hard on the floor one morning. A couple of years ago the kiddo was calling me frantically, because they’d pushed another out (the second biggest?), and it was still flopping about, so I tossed it back into the tank. Where I think it still is. The one we (the girls and I) found hard on the floor this morning was not the biggest one left. I thought goldfish were hard to keep? These things just keep hanging on!

No carnage,

zuzu was very interested in the treats, gracie was mostly just interested in dh

The snow goon still stands. And the girls still sometimes notice it and set up a racket.

And the most exciting animal news for last… Puppies!
Bear has had 7 puppies overnight. There may or may not be another. Three girls, four boys, three golden, four black. It’s snowing like crazy here this morning, but I plan to visit today and will get some pics.

Woke up to more snow. Actually to the sound of a neighbor spinning his wheels. I thought to myself, do I really want to get up and go to the gym? Nope!

Rather drab in the photo, but the snow is big and fluffy. Some color came yesterday…

dh grabbed the camera to capture this,

uyuh, outside in the snow in pjs

I came in and saw dh building a snowman. He finished it, came inside and then riled up the dogs… ‘girls! girls! what’s that out the window?’. Then he retreated to the shower, leaving crazy barking dogs. He closed the shade on the kitchen window, but Zuzu’s rather bright and she wandered into the other room and looked out the other window and set up yet another racket.

Zuzu’s still wandering around barking out the windows…making me nuts!

Look who learned to knit!

copper, alex, tina

My nephew, younger brother to the one that was here in October. They live out in Colorado. Jodee at The Fiber Exchange taught him to knit. Thanks Jodee! Great job Alex! I’m not sure what the yarn is, his mom says it came from Libby’s shop, it might be Odyssey merino.

Scarf update… I thought I’d try blocking the be-j out of it. And guess what? I didn’t even have to stretch it hard or anything, it grew like magic about 6 inches. Almost dry and ready to go. Sweater update… started in on shortening the sleeves on last year’s sweater.  dh is going outside just now to plant some treats in the snow goon, then we’ll let the girls out and watch what happens…..

For a sweater for dh’s birthday at the end of January. This’ll be the 3rd year in a row… though he hasn’t worn the one I made last year that much because the sleeves need to be shortened. Maybe I’ll get to that before I finish this 3rd one. He wore the first one quite a lot, and it no longer looks that great. Part of that is that I should do short-rows in the back to make the back longer, and I didn’t on this first one… so it rides up a bit.

Here’s the swatch,

navy and charcoal lopi

Ideally I might have used other colors, but I’m working down that insanely large stash. I tried it as charcoal with navy, but it was harder to see the navy flecks in the charcoal than vice-versa. And his sweater last year was charcoal. I tried flecks of a lightish blue, but he didn’t like them. And I’m saving the red for myself! His color preferences are rather subdued, which doesn’t make for flights of fancy in the knitting. But thankfully this’ll be a quick knit on largish needles.

I haven’t decided if I want a corrugated rib or Latvian-style braid for the cuffs and bottom. I’m winging this one, in the round, bottom up.

So what to do with leftover xmas dinner?

pork pot pie!

Yummier than it looks. Easy crust recipe back here at the bottom of the post.

In the few minutes since I posted, and while I was out and about reading other blogs, I received six spam comments.  I can get a couple dozen a day.  Anybody on wordpress or any other host know of a good fix for this?  Some plug in or widget or something?  I think I saw something that will add that the ‘enter this code’ box.  But if somebody has some other suggestion, I’ll certainly look into it!

And it wasn’t ready for Christmas! If you didn’t get your Pollyanna gift from me, skip this post, eh?

Meantime,
The moon was really incredible the other night. I tried to get a picture.

just not catching enough light to show the very interesting wolves should be howling in Transylvania clouds

So I thought maybe the ‘M’ setting would be like the ‘B’ setting on my old K1000. I pushed the button, and then couldn’t get the camera to stop taking the picture or shut off or do just about anything. Except it got this

does it look like a book cover for a creepy mystery?

I used this yarn,

tiur, frog tree alpaca, jawoll, inca alpaca, frog tree alpaca
in linen stitch, 300 stitches lengthwise on a #8 to make a scarf.

The back is different than the front, but I like both sides,

One side is supposed to mirror the other, but because of construction of the stitch, it didn’t quite,

It ended up as 42 inches long. Just a tad short. Enough to wrap once, but the tails just stick out of the wrapped section around the neck. Should I put fringe on it? The fringe would have to be red, or black/gray/red; there isn’t enough to do tails in all black. Should I pick up and knit or crochet an edge? Fringe is quicker, and it is already late, but I’m open to suggestions here.

Had a grand time at Ellen’s, though somebody came so early I missed him!

Franklin was charming, warm, welcoming, and entertaining. Much different than the tough guy gym rat he looks like in his host photo on his blog. Or maybe he’s channeling Dolores in that picture?

The girls each got a toy under the tree, but you know that they only wanted the one that the other had. After some time this led to a knock-down-growls-teeth kind of dog fight!

Took the two of us adults to settle them, but it was over as quick as it started and they were tail wagging and ready for a treatie. So the stuffed toys now only come out for short bursts.

Have you all seen the Craftzine blog? All kinds of interesting stuff shows up there, knitted and not. I was especially taken by the gun-shaped purse, though I wouldn’t want to wear it travelling or in airports (and I’m not really a handbag kind of person).

The girls are about to have some new cousins. Their auntie is 62 days pregnant, and ready to pop any moment. I thought maybe they’d come yesterday. The best Christmas gift ever, life.

Auntie Bear, sister to the girls’ mom

She may not look it, but Bear is 1/2 border collie and 1/2 yellow lab. But put her near a ball and she is all border collie. The father is a different dog than the girls’ father, a lovely, boxy, well-tempered apricot standard poodle. Bear, her sister Micky (mom to the girls), their mom Kate, and their dad Tucker are all used in therapy work with kids. Which explains a lot about my girls’ general good temperment.

kate, micky, and one of their pups a couple of years ago

I had a dream some months ago that my friend had a batch of puppies running around, and some of them looked like little red Zuzus (I didn’t have Gracie as a pup, so don’t have that connection). I’m very very interested to see what these puppies look like. I’ve a standing invite to come watch them being born (unless it’s the middle of the night), so I’ll probably have puppy pics. Not sure if all the pups are spoken for, but if you’re interested in more info, let me know and I’ll hook you up with my friend.