That Red Envelope

This

is one of the happiest sights each month.  What will be inside the shiny, red envelope?

This month

my favorite needles.

A bouquet of mini-skeins.

Brownie Brittle, which Finn won't stay out of.  Delicious, and available at a couple of local stores, according to the website.

Three skeins of yarn made from recycled jeans, one in Orchid, two in Citrine.  If I hadn't already cast on for "Barry" and "Maurice," I'd be tempted to find something for these.

Any suggestions?

Finn also got something today.  He's been very patient, listening to the squeakers go into other bones --- he finally has his own.

Stripes

A while back, I said I had a story for another day.  That day is now here.  But the tale is 45+ years old.

I am a stone-cold, almost-lifelong Bee Gees fan.  (As in, I have a crystalline memory of sitting in the swings in elementary school singing "I Started A Joke.")  When I was old enough to go to concerts, I'd go see them when they would come to Nashville.  One of those shows, my Daddy and I went to.  More often, I attended with my best friend, Shari.  Since middle school, she has endured, and enabled my fanaticism.  She was one of the first to check in on me when Maurice, and then Robin, died, leaving only Barry.

Shari lives in Pennsylvania now, so though we keep in touch, we don't get to see each other very often.   For her birthday this year, her husband gave her tickets to Barry's Mythology Tour stop in Philadelphia, and she invited me!  So, next Sunday, I'm flying up to see her, and to see Barry on the 19th.  Very excited.

Once the plans were certain, like any knitter would, I started thinking about what knitting I could take with me.  About that time, I found a trio of patterns at leethalknits.com called --- how perfect is this --- Barry, Maurice and Robin.  All three feature stripes, which is how I came to mention the whole stripes thing earlier.  All I have to do is choose the yarns, and away we go. . .

Skeleton Crew

Well, since I finished up the shipment of bones, knitting around here has been . . . bones.  Once you're in a groove, I guess. . .

I did spend time this afternoon going through all my knitting patterns, looking for anything that could possibly be turned into a dog or a cat toy.  There were a surprising number of things;  I'll post photos as I experiment.

Of course, going through patterns means seeing loads of things I'd like to get on the needles.  But there are two projects still waiting from before I started the dog toys, and, in a few days, I'll be casting on a couple of new things.  That story in my next post.

Bones Away!

Two boxes, 120 handknit cotton dog toys, on the way to North Carolina.

Whew.

Time to relax a little.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things My Mother Taught Me

1.  How to knit

2.  To love books

3.  How to make easy and ridiculously good dumplings.

4.  To say "Sir" and "Ma'am"

5.  An appreciation for Jumbles, crosswords and jigsaw puzzles

6.  To always write thank you notes

7.  How to put up fruit, vegetables and jelly

8.  How to balance a checkbook

9.  How to backcomb hair

10.  How to piece a quilt

Testing

One of my loveliest knitting friends is Kim, at Love is All You Knit.  She and her husband have a Basset named Henry whom I've rather fallen in love with.  I asked if I could send him one of my knit bones, and today, got these photos.  Looks like my first field test has gone really well!

Behold The Only Thing Greater Than 99

The One Hundredth Bone.