The internet... blessing or curse

It's been a couple of days and finally flickr works again, so here's the photo.




Marshall is finished and I am gletting closer on The Ultimate Gift.

I have also started another pair of socks, Pomatomus with Lana Grossa Meilenweit Boot Stretch in a nice black/pink combination. So, the knitting keeps going on.

On the dog front, we are now taking the car twice a day to drive into the nearby Parque Natural de los Alcornocales. The reason you ask - Goats! My two borzois have discovered the joys of chasing goats. And since they are as abundant as sand on the beach around the village, we now go walking a bit further away. No goats, just cows and Ari and Lulu are scared of them, since they are bigger. Goats look like borzois - at least in size. So, we have discovered lovely quiet walks through pine forests, Lulu plays with pine cones while Ari looks on slightly befuddled. He just can´t get his head around anything you can´t pull on, like an old towel or a piece of rope.

Yesterday, Ari decided that coming back to me so that I could put his lead on and then get him into the car was just not in the cards. In the end, I had to resort to driving away from him at a fast pace for about 300m. He came running, but still not to me... so I drove even faster for a longer distance. And he came running and jumped straight into the car. So today he stuck to me like glue!!! I hope it stays that way.

Another pair of socks.... and a couple of lazy dogs!

I had a knit fit in the last 24 hours. The Mystery Sock KAL called to me and I couldn't resist starting the Shell Socks from knitaddicted.com.

I made them out of some leftover and froggedMerino 2000 from Lana Grossa, very nice and soft, to be used only for toasty toes around the house. Would you believe they used to be part of a cardigan a few years ago?

Also, while I ws working hard on the socks, the dogs decided it was time to relax - considering they don't have opposable thumbs and therefore cannot knit, not a bad way to pass the time.

Good news...

Well, after moving to Spain, I started looking for a job. Initially, I wasn't worried and thought things would move quickly. Well, they didn't. Thank God for savings and for the fact I sold my apartment in London for a very good price. I temped here and there, and now, finally have found a permanent position. I'll be working as PA and Admin Asst. for a Financial Advisor. It is an English company that has a subsidiary here in Spain. I'm over the moon.

So, starting Wednesday next week (Monday and Tuesday are local holidays, LOL), I'll be working. The knitting will go slower, but I'm finally earning money regularly again! Time for a celebration this weekend!

Shedir and Baudelaire

Well, the Baudelaire's are finished and a picture is posted in the FO Gallery. They turned out nicely and I am now waiting for some sock yarn I ordered so that I can knit a pair for my mother. I'm also going to try out a few other patterns and maybe order Eunny's lovely pattern for the cabled socks on her website.

From some leftover Lana Grossa Numero Uno Tweed, I'm working on Shedir at the moment. The heat here is still keeping me from making much progress on my larger projects, so whenever having a sweater in my lap starts bothering me, I switch to something small.

On another note, I have entered a bag I'm knitting in my Work in Progress Bar and will be posting progress photos soon. At the same time, I'm working on noting down the pattern and will publish it later. I'm not sure yet whether as a free pattern or for sale, maybe you can let me know once you see the finished work.

The dogs are enjoying our early morning walks, especially the dips in the pond left over in the river. The rest has unfortunately dried out. This morning, Lulu finally discovered that there are fish in there. Many fruitless minutes later she started barking frustratedly at the water, since catching them proved elusive. She gave it a good try though, sometimes sticking her entire head in, including the ears. That naturally resulted in furious shaking! Ari looked on like a very sedate older gentleman. Sometimes it's hard to imagine that Lulu with her 9 months is only 4 months younger than he is. He is so calm most of the time, you'd think he was in a coma.

Well, time to go out for out middle of the night walk, it is getting much to hot to go out during the day, so the dogs sleep the day away and our walks happen in the evening, around midnight and the early morning now. Isn't it good that I don't need a lot of sleep.

The knitalongs continue....

Well, new to knitalongs and I keep adding to them.

Some weeks ago, I decided that I couldn't do without the Sunrise Circle Jacket from Interweave Press, so after scouring many retailers for an alternative to the suggested yarn, I finally found something I liked.

It's 100% Alpaca, called Alpaca Sport and in a lovely deep aubergine. The retailer is Wollkontor in Berlin.

It took a while to arrive, since they had to reorder the color I wanted. In the meantime, I discovered blogging and knitalongs and lo-and-behold, there is one for the Sunrise Circle Jacket. So.. another knitalong added to my list.

It has already grown a bit, just past the decreases on the back, since the heat doesn't make it easy to knit for long on something rather bulky.

Now, where to find interesting toggle buttons for it here in Andalusia? I may just take a little swatch to the glass blower in Gibraltar and see if he can custom make me some, when he does something with dark purple glass again.... We'll see.

By the way, has anyone experience in lining a knit jacket? I am thinking it would help keep the shape.

In the meantime, I'll keep continuing on my Baudelaire's for the KAL's (both the Baudelaire one and the Sock of the Month 2).

I've also added some pictures of previously finished object this year. Sophia I is for Christmas already and the size is for 12 to 18 months. Ribby for Emma is also her Christmas present as are Pink & Pearly. Other finished objects will come once I get the pictures from the recipients.

Also, I have persuaded my Mom to take as many pictures as possible of things I had made in previous years for her and the rest of the family. It's mostly so that I can have a record of it, but I may post the odd item here or there for you to see.

Well, that's it for now, have a great weekend all of you.

It's a dog's life.....

Aragon's favourite relaxing pose
Originally uploaded by borzoisandknits.

Aragon's favourite relaxing pose

Knitalongs

I discovered the knitalong!

As a knitter who has absolutely no "knitting" friends, this is heaven.

So I signed up to a couple - ok, if one is completely correct - to several. (Reminded me of a few lines in a book I read: Wife - How many drinks have you had? Husband: A couple. Wife: A couple is two. Any number greater than two is several! Husband: Ok, several.)

So - several. They are:

Sock wars
Beaudelaire
A Sock a month
Mystery Sock knitalong

You may have noticed - there are only socks involved. Since I am as new to knitalongs as I am to blogging, I thought I'd start small. That good intention may not last however, considering there is that nifty little site with current knitalongs on it - 2006 Knitalongs.

Well, if I could only figure out now how to put the buttons for them in the sidebar at blogger, I'd be extatic. (Doesn't seem to take much to get me into that state!