Edgar Has a New Sweater

On Christmas Day Susan came over with her Dog Sweater Book and told Edgar she was going to knit him a sweater. Frank and John were there and said "Uh, wait a minute. A sweater for Edgar, what kind of a sweater?" Susan showed them the patterns and designs in the book and assured them that Edgar's sweater would be very fitting for him.

Look at Edgar. He loves his sweater.

Susan knit him a fair isle sweater and he loves it. He so kindly posed for us so we could take his picture and show everyone how handsome he looks.

He told me I had to take a close up so you could see the lovely fair isle design in his sweater.
He walked around and showed off his sweater to all of us ...
and then he decided he was ready for a nap. As we all know, Edgar loves to sleep.
And he does it so well.

This weekend Susan and I came over to Edgar's Acres for a lovely knitting respite. We came over on Thursday night because of Friday I had the Karsten Homes guy coming over to do some final finishing touches. Then Casey, the deck guy, came over in the afternoon to give the me bid for the decking we need done at Edgar's Acres.

Friday night Susan and I went through the seed cataloges to finalize what we are going to plant in the garden patch and then I hooked up and ordered the seeds and plants I wanted from Johnny's Seeds and Territorial Seeds. I always order my seeds from these two companies since they both primarily feature seeds specifically for a northern climate such as Edgar's Acres.

Saturday we ran errands and went to visit Nora and Jean at A Dropped Stitch. Love those ladies and love their store. I picked up some lovely Alpaca With A Twist to make a pair of gloves with. Katy came over Saturday to spend the night and we had a great visit. Since Katy is not a knitter we waited to make our trip to the lumber store until she got here. We then went and I got David's anniversary gift. For once I'm ahead of the game.

Yesterday we went over to Fort Hadlock to see Sandy at Textile Fiber Arts and had a wonderful visit with her. Even Katy went with us. It was the first time she had ever been in a yarn store, but she was a good sport. I picked up some more yarn for this project ...

I started this project the week after Christmas. I just couldn't do any more socks, hats or sweaters. I also needed to knit something in COLOR since all of the knitting I had done for three months was in the male range of colors ... black, brown, gray. I have had this idea for an afghan in my head for quite a while and decided this would be the perfect project. It is. I can't put it down. I have become obsessed with garter stitch segments, picking up stitches, and casting off. This block of the afphan now looks like this.

It measures 35 x 25 inches. It is now too cumbersome to drag along when I'm traveling so I started another block.

I'm thinking four blocks will be enough for a good sized afghan. Now, if you feel like tilting your head, here's what they look like next to each other (can't figure out how to rotate on this Blogspot).

I am having fun with this. I don't need to count. Don't need to worry if I have enough yarn. Best of all, I don't need to worry if it is going to fit.

Last night Susan and I made paper dolls for our Fit and Flatter class with Sally Melville at the Madrona Knitting Retreat. Only for Sally.


Well, the lovely knitting retreat is coming to an end. Susan and I promised Louie that we would let him take a sunbath on the deck this afternoon before we head back to Bellevue. He was taking a lovely sunbath yesterday when we told him we were heading over to Sandy's (she won't let me in the place without Louie).

TTFN

Sue

As the Holiday Season Comes to an End

As we head into the 12th day of Christmas I reflect on what a wonderful holiday season this has been despite SNOW, SNOW and even more SNOW. Christmas 2008 is the only year I can remember where we had SNOW on Christmas Day. A lot of SNOW. Fortunately, Frank and Dennis both have four wheel drive vehicles.

Frank and John were able to drive up from Portland to our place the Tuesday before Christmas between storms. David and I had prepared ourselves to spending Christmas without them because of the weather and hazardous road conditions. Fortunately, there was a window of opportunity for travel.

Christmas Eve we headed up to Cynthia's for a feast and celebration with friends and family. Frank was able to get all of us up to Cynthia's house with his truck, making two trips.

Christmas Day Frank was able to get Susan to our house, and then Dennis got Cynthia to our house, and then got both Cynthia and Susan home. We had 18" ruts on top of ice on most of the streets in our neighborhood so needed high clearance four wheel drive vehicles to travel.

It was wonderful having Susan, Cynthia and Dennis come and share Christmas day with us. We also had Bella and Disney join us. After all, our doggies are part of our families as well. The prime rib came out beautifully, and was so good. Christmas dinner is generally a very simple affair, just the prime rib, stuffed baked potatoes, and home grown canned green beans. Edgar was hoping the prime rib was going to be put on the table, and would be unsupervised.

So was A.J.

And Bella. When Bella saw the prime rib was going to be very much supervised, she went looking for something or someone else to handle.

She decided John needed some kisses.

Dinner was wonderful and we all ate until we were full.

Later David and I, and Frank and John played Monopoly until 1:30 a.m. As you can see from the look on John's face, we got pretty "silly."

Meanwhile, Edgar slept. And I mean slept. He didn't even notice Louie on top of him. In fact, in the Winter, Edgar loves to sleep.

He believes in comfort too when he sleeps. This is Thursday night up at Edgar's Acres.

Early Friday night...

and later on Friday night. This time Johnny was trying to get Edgar up.

And last night, Saturday. He loves to sleep. Mom once made the comment that I should write a book about Edgar sleeping. He loves his special couch at Edgar's Acres, and he loves his winter sleeps.

Well, we need to get ready to head back to Bellevue and reality.

TTFN

Sue