CarmelKnits, etc.

If National Dog Day... My babies thru the years. In the top left is our first Boxer Girl Bailey. She's the reason I love Boxers today.

You win.

Growing up my grandparents would come visit us in the summer. Usually when blackberries were in season. Mom would head off to work and Grandma would wrangle us together we'd head off to pick blackberries. I remember seeing her climb a slope and diving into a blackberry thicket giddy as a school girl. We'd pick bucketfuls of fat ripe berries. Suffer pricked fingers, torn clothes, and thorn gashes of which I still have a few scars to this day. She'd freeze them. Make freezer jam. Best of all though... She'd make blackberry pie. As much as I hate picking blackberries to this day, something inside me said, 'get your ass out there and pick some berries for your grandma' Not nearly enough for a pie. Definitely enough for my breakfast bowl tomorrow and maybe a couple sneaky handfuls for me and the dogs. The heat, the smell of fresh berries, the bleeding fingertip, are totally worth it. It reminds me of my grandma. And I ...

D won a helmet, years and years ago. Way before I knew him. It's a helmet that demands to be worn.    It's a great helmet. I like to slap it on my head and then sneak up on D. It makes him laugh. It makes me laugh, which makes the sneaking harder. I've pulled into the driveway and see D open the garage door standing there wearing the helmet and I giggle uncontrollably in the car. Want to guarantee a smile? Put this helmet on and wiggle your eyebrows. It's a laugh-fest.  My neighbors have all seen me running around the outside of our house wearing this looking for D.  This helmet is a winner.

Where do I begin? I remember the minute I saw you after Veera Valimaki posted the pattern . I was in love. How could I not be? Stripes, clever short row shaping, big bold blocks of color. Not to mention neon.  I knew immediately that I had to make you. I had to make you asap. I knew what yarn I needed. Nothing would do but to make you in the Purl Soho Line Weight Merino in Super Pink, Yellow Yellow and Oyster. Mom traveled to New York. I begged (not very hard) her to go and buy the yarn for me at the Purl Soho shop. A week later it arrived. I didn't start you right away. I couldn't you see, I had a few other things on the needles, a two week vacation to Hawaii on the horizon that needed packing, and two dogs that needed to get booked into a kennel. When we got home though, I wound up all three beautiful skeins, packed you in my weekend bag and off we went for a weekend in Leavenworth where I finally cast you on. We worked well together thru the fall. ...

Thunderbirds   I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. It wasn't until the summer I turned 16 that we moved to Minnesota. Thunderbirds One of the biggest things that happens in Seattle in the summer is SeaFair. SeaFair has events all summer long culminating with the TorchLight Parade, the arrival of the US Navy Blue Angels and Hydroplane races on Lake Washington. 'Girlfriend' The past two years we've been taking 'Girlfriend' out on the water to watch the air show practice that includes; Marine helicopters, F22 Fighter Jets, the Thunderbirds, Big Bertha, and the Blue Angels, and a handful of other stunt planes flying all around. Thunderbirds Long hot days. Jets roaring overhead. Fantastic floats for lounging on the water. Top Gun soundtrack queued up for the big show. Boats everywhere. More boats than you'll ever see in one place on Lake Washington. F22 & WWII Fighter Plane together This happens the first weekend of Augu...

Because I just finished a Floras cap that has more seed stitch than you can shake a DPN at and I cast on for another last night? Or maybe it's because the last 3 projects I've cast on with this particular skein have been ripped out? Or because as much as I hate knitting seed stitch I can stop knitting it or touching it. Tactile much? Project: Floras Cap by Churchmouse Yarn & Tea.