Lion washcloth

These cute little washcloths knit up very quickly. This is my first one, the single strand version here, and I am working on a double stranded one now.

The cutest house guest ever!

Todd and I are fostering a Pyr puppy! His name is Loki and he'll be with us for two weeks. He is only 10 weeks old and he already weights 26 pounds. He is going to be enormous. Buddy didn't know what to do with him at first but they are getting along very well now. The cat on the other hand was not pleased to see him at all, but I think she'll come around.

New York State Fair in pictures

Who're you callin' domesticated?

Our cat Ginger is anything but domesticated. She is mostly barn cat and a little Siamese and up until I adopted her and brought her to my apartment at college she had been running wild on my uncle's farm. Over the years she has mellowed out but she still is a vicious killer. At my parent's house she won my dad over by killing a huge NYC rat and also a series of mice and insects. Here in the wilds of New Jersey she has moved on to bigger and better things and here you can see her proudly displaying her latest victim. Fortunately for the garter snake we got to him when he was still alive - it helps that she likes to parade around meowing loudly to show off her prey before she's finished them off - and put him back outside and locked her in for the night.

New Toys! (I mean important knitting tools)

Recently Todd managed to convince me that out of my per diem for being in Chicago all the time I could splurge on a yarn swift and ball winder. So I went out and bought the swift and winder that I'd been drooling over. Before I knew it there were packages at the house and new toys to play with, I mean important knitting tools. This means that I can get my projects that have yarn that does not come in balls started without having to spend hours balling the yarn by hand. I kind of like balling yarn but it can get tedious.
Once we got the swift and the baller set up and I got out my stash of yarns that require balling and we got busy. Todd discovered that using the ball winder and the swift was a close second to his favorite knitting related activity: ripping out knitting mistakes. We even drafted some of our friends into helping.