...poodle is now walked, and sprawled on the floor underneath my quilting frame with his head near my spinning wheel. And his feet near some handkerchiefs that I am making. Gentle Reader, I know that you will understand.

Back to the knitting projects underway:
A pair of boring blue socks;
A crocheted hat in Noro bulky yarn is almost down to the brim, and is awaiting a flowery finish. I became interested in crochet when I realized that I pretty much suck at knitting hats. I picked up the Interweave Knits (first) Crochet issue (with a model on the front who bears an uncanny resemblance to me!?!), and went for the basic half-double crochet hat. I invented some pretty funky stitches while I was tring to figure out the crochet thing. Thanks to the lovely barista/knitter at Mabel's Knittery in Portland, OR for helping me to stick the hook through the right part of the stitch.
Back to the hat: this is my second crocheted hat, and this time I'm going to make a little removable flower to pin on it. The colorway looked so good on the skein in Knit Purl in Portland, and so not quite me on the hat. After wracking my brain, I remembered a friend who wears these colors. Purple, green, pink, as only Noro could do it.

Photos to follow soon. (Promises, promises.)

The Beginning

Why a blog, and why now? After discovering knitting blogs, I've wanted to join the fun. It was always my intention to use flyingpoodle.com to document my crafties. With the gentle nudging of my better half, I'm finally getting around to it.

So, let's catch up on the last 27 years of crafts. We'll skip the first 10 or so. Actually, let's go ahead and start now, and work backwards.

This morning, it's been all about the mittens. These have been in progress for nigh on a couple o' years. I was very attracted to Fair Isle knitting right off the bat (after I learned how to knit), and decided to make a pair of Alice Starmore mittens. Of course, I couldn't just go with the beautiful colorway that was in the book checked out from the local library, I had to create my own. I was inspired by a very nice sunset I saw one day. Halfway through the first mitt, I decided I hated the colors, but would finish them anyway.

About 5 years later, they are still on the needles. It didn't help that I remembered wrong and started the 2nd mitten with size 1 needles instead of the size 2 that I did the first mitt with. But! I switched back to the 2's.

Project next that I have on needles is envisioned as a gauzy lightweight sweater for the "shoulder seasons", i.e. fall and spring. Laceweight black yarn on size 4 needles, using Ann Budd's basic sweater pattern. I forget what I have in mind for the front.

-Interruption- to walk the poodle.