dino sweater, part 1

This morning I finished the back piece of the dino sweater I'm knitting for my nephew. Probably the easiest piece, but still very exciting to get it off the needles. After knitting a couple sweaters for myself, it's very refreshing how quickly sweaters for little ones knit up.

oh, Seattle summer

Finally got around to cleaning off my front 'porch' area yesterday. Set up our camp chairs and our small outdoor table, swept away as many spiders as I could, and rearranged my potted plants. Today, it rained. But I didn't want that to stop me from enjoying the outdoors. So, I did this:

Great how well those built-in cup holders work for holding yarn skeins.

Ira Spring Trail

strawberry day

A week ago yesterday was strawberry day. Strawberry picking, strawberry jamming and strawberry cake-making. Smitten Kitchen comes through again, with a delicious recipe for Strawberry Summer Cake.

a tree

Much sweater progress has been made. First, I finished my February Lady Sweater. No pictures of that yet, but I have worn it a couple times with glee. Glee, I tell you. I simply can't wear that sweater and not feel incredibly proud of myself for finishing a project that seemed so out of my league. Especially since I love the way it turned out.

Anyway, the tree. Joe asked me to knit him a sweater using this tree pattern we found on livejournal. It's modeled after the Tree of Rohan from Lord of the Rings. I decided to put it on one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's hybrid sweaters. To tell you the truth, I am much more afraid of doing the shoulder shaping than I am of any part of this tree. The charts provided for it are very easy to follow, and I just love how the tree pattern emerges and gets more beautiful with each row.


My knitter-readers will probably notice that the bottom curls. Don't worry, I plan on adding a ribbed border once the body of the sweater is complete.

cuteness

our new kitties

A week ago today Joe and I went down to the King County Animal Shelter in Kent to check out two sister kitties we found on Petfinder.


We immediately fell in love, adopted them and brought them home.


Joe joked in the car that since they look so much alike they are like two Sharons. The idea stuck and we named them Athena and Boomer after one of our favorite sci-fi shows.


Our last two kitties were not friends, and often got into fights. It's amazing watching these two play together, sleep together, and bathe each other. They are best buds (unlike Athena and Boomer on BSG, who were most definitely not best buds).