I saw this on the Jersey Knitter's blog and loved it! So, I am sharing. I am Angora.

Go to Potter Craft and learn what you are!

The quiz promotes Clara Parkes book, The Book of Yarn, which a friend of mine and I bought. The book is amazing. I am slowly reading this book enjoying each section on the animals and learning so much.

Maya is a huge ball of love. She has came into our home and become a family member that we adore and cherish. We are under the impression that she is a rat terrier mixed with a black lab for a few reasons, but no matter what she definitely has terrier in her bones.

I have always had a black lab mix and I love them dearly. Ben has always had terriers in his home and he adores them. So, here is a rundown of things I am become accustomed.

From a bird's eye perspective Maya looks like a little sausage, so of couse I call her "salchicha".
Maya smells like Doritos which my animal guru friend (I will thus name her The Pet Whisperer as she is a vet) tells me is a yeast issue that terriers commonly have which is treatable (so yes we will be treating it as she likes her paws a lot).
Maya, like my relatives, talks with her hands, or in her case, her paws. She gets excited she taps you with her paw.
Maya drinks our coffee. We don't give her coffee, when she is a passenger in the car she opens the lid of the portable coffee container and starts slurping it.
Maya jumps all four feet off the ground over two feet in the air.
Maya has to have constant human closeness (she follows whoever leaves and is upset when separated).
Maya makes toys out of everything like yesterday when she brought the cover to the water machine so Ben could throw it.

Ben is getting accustomed to a dog that likes to play fetch. Would you believe none of his dogs have had toys?

Tina asked, "I am curious what video you purchased."
I purchased Cat Sitter, Volume II. It says the nature is in 5.1 Surround Sound which sounded fabulous on our surround sound system. I linked to Amazon, but I gotta be honest I got it cheaper at Petco.

On Knitting News: I am on the back. I did one hexagon and it looks good. I will post photos later this week.

Well, I did finish one front of the Hex Coat. My row and stitch gauge is off. I compensated the row gauge by removing one hexagon and hopefully this should be okay. My armhole will be slightly larger but that's okay because I have large arms. The stitch gauge may be okay as well because I am knitting a much larger size and there is always blocking. If this looks hideous, you have permission to lie when the coat is done and tell me, "Wow, that's lot of knitting!" Ok, don't lie. I am going to knit up one hexagon before I proceed just to ensure that it is wonky* looking.

In a moment of weakness and unexpected extra cash in my purse (very rare these days) and impulse issues may have influenced my thought process, I bought the Pet Sitter dvd. I was always curious to watch them. It impressed me that it was hdtv or surround sound or something similar and after leaving the dvd on we found Puffy up close and personal with the tv.

We realized the surround sound factor impressed the cats.

Izzy (not pictured) climbed the armoire and looked for the birds out the window.

Maya also had moments of cuteness in the middle her four days of driving us crazy. She has had a bad behavior spell. It seemed a couple days at the Brookdale Dog Park helped alleviate.

"I can touch my nose with my tongue. Can you?"

While this may look like either a little or a lot of progress, it is very little progress because I have barely been knitting. I have been having pains in my left hand due to my second part time job (no, not the knitting shop). I am enjoying the lopi lite.

Hopefully tomorrow I can knit some more on this sweater.

So, I knit the stockinette swatch and got gauge and I was incredibly excited because that means that I can begin the Hex Coat immediately. Well, I got to work and realized that my swatch was supposed to be in pattern. So, I knit the swatch again in seed stitch. So, I get gauge. Yeah! Then Sunday mentions to me that my swatch should be in Moss Stitch. Yeah, that's a different stitch. So, I cast on again. Part of the problem is that I can't add 2+2 today.

In fact, I have no idea what I am knitting now, but eventually I got gauge switching to a larger needle. However, now reading it again, I have to look at my swatch again. Did I mention I can't process simple things today?

I did look up the errata for the pattern (and they were two), photocopied my pattern (it's my book and I am not sharing the pattern so no violation of copyright laws) so I can write notes on the pattern and highlight the numbers I need and put in a protective sleeve for easy transportation, and lastly I am sitting here at 8pm watching American History X debating whether I should cast on becasuse if I am messing up a swatch, what is next?

Tomorrow is the official start date of the unofficial Hex Coat KAL. Granted it only involves two of us -we have been planning this for quite some time. In fact, when I finished the Greenjeans cardigan, I didn't even cast on for another sweater. I did order my lopi lite and then did a gauge swatch which worked well. I got gauge! Tomorrow, I photocopy my pattern so I can make my notes and then the cast on.

In the one week I did not cast on a sweater (I really like knitting sweaters lately!) I thought it might be time to cast on the HP Prisoner of Azkabhan scarf in Ravenclaw (for me).

I had ordered the yarn from Knitpicks ages ago (I think it has been at least a year and a half). I ordered this yarn before I started knitting sweaters, so I did realize that this scarf, which requires ten skeins of the blue and two skeins of the grey, has enough yarn to make a sweater. Sadly, I won't wear this shade of blue as a sweater so a scarf it becomes.

Did you notice the sweet knitting bag? That was a gift from a friend of mine. I love it!

Four out of five cats is impressive. Yes, this is the photo of a crazy cat lady but I was so impressed they were sleeping on the sofa together when I got home from work. Ironically, sleeping on my sofa and not DH's.

Knitting Updates: The Greenjeans is done. I need to take a photo of it. After a mad moment when I wet blocked the sweater, I thought it was too blocked. It's actually okay, but it does need another closure for it to fit perfectly.
The yarn is on its way for the Hex Coat.
I am knitting Socks That Rock in Hot Flash to keep me slightly sane. Since MIL never sent me her measurements, I am making them for myself.

Netflix Update: We watched Blades of Glory. Stupid and funny flick. I really need to watch some films of a more intellectual calibre. Sadly, PBS is not playing any British mysteries. Oh-but we did add the Vicar of Dibley to our list. Dreamgirls is next.

Since I had completed a lot of the collar it was put on hold last night until I picked buttons. As my fingers were itching to knit something, I finally picked up some Knitpicks Merino style yarn (purchased over a year ago) to knit my Ravenclaw Prisoner of Azkaban scarf. This pattern uses a lot of yarn. In fact, I think I could knit a whole sweater with the amount of yarn I have for this project. So, reading over the pattern it mentions using a Provisional Cast On, and while I did search the internet, it was the perfect time to pull out my Knitting Glossary DVD to have Elizabeth Zimmerman and Meg Swansen explain their recommendations. I put the knitting down to find this...

Her Puffiness on top of my yarn and project. Although, I was very excited because not only did I do this cast on (the scarf is knit in the round so the ends will be kitchnered), I also came across jogless knitting. For those not in the know, when you knit in the round and are making stripes your stitch is off by one which is obvious and annoying. Jogless knitting eases that stitch and helps with the illusion the stripes are even. I love learning new techniques!

It is first thing in the morning and I am almost done with Mr Greenjeans. Sigh, I hope it fits. Tomorrow, I will continue knitting the collar and sadly I may need to break into the final hank of yarn (for a few rows and bind off-how sad!). And steam blocking!

Happy New Year! We spent new year's with Law & Order marathons, a home cooked meal, frozen champagne, and sticky toffee pudding. It was nice to be home with DH and the zoo (lots of furbabies) and relaxed. In fact, it was the first time in a few weeks we were home at the same time so our time together was cherished.

Knitting Updates: I finished the second sleeve of Mr. Greenjeans (sans cables). I am going to pick up for the collar in a little bit so that either Wednesday or Thursday I can pick out buttons. Yeah! Did I mention this is the first time I am making buttonholes.


Also, I un-did the bind off on the Purple Gable split and spliced some more yarn and continued the ribbing for six more rows. So far, no curling is occurring. A couple folks recommended this as it seems the belief was that the stockinette was overwhelming the little bit of rib.


And it is official- a few of us are attempting to tackle the Hex Coat by Norah Gaughan in Knitting Nature. I placed my order for Lopi Lite which will be my first time knitting a garment with this yarn. I picked a neutral green color. Kelly will be knitting it in Ultra Alpaca, and three other folks are knitting in Lopi Lite. We will attempt to get together to offer support as it is my understanding it can be slightly tricky and the moss stitch can be tiresome. I am so excited!

Other Updates: We finally watched 300 and I really liked it (granted I was probably hiding behind some knitting during the more gruesome scenes). Maya has visited the dog park four times and loves it! Whole Foods has this mini sticky toffee pudding that is fabulous!