I Want A Puppy

It doesn't make any sense, because of how little I'm home, but I still envy Mel with his new puppy, and now I find out quilt-friend Liza has a new puppy as well.

One Of These Days
When the day comes where I'm either not working, or no longer traveling for work, I would love to get a puppy.

I live in a townhouse which isn't huge, so it couldn't be a huge dog. I have a small area for a "back yard" where I could let the dog hang out (assuming it wouldn't be a noisy dog), but I would still have to walk the dog twice a day.

And I would promise that I would never knit this dog any apparel unless it absolutely begged me to do so.

Men's Spring Knitting Retreat
There has been a lot of interest buzzing around about the knitting retreat for men, scheduled for this May 16th through 18th.

The official web site is here, for those that missed the initial announcement.

I've decided that I will prepare a couple of workshops to present at the retreat, if the guys are interested. I have a lot of materials already prepared to do a "Color Design in Men's Knitwear" workshop, so that might be interesting. I was also thinking about putting together a session on spinning...either one for beginners or something like "Speed Spinning a Knittable Yarn"

I've asked this question in a Ravelry forum, but thought blog readers might have some ideas on what might be interesting workshops to consider.

Current Knitting
I got a few more rounds done on the red lace tea cloth.



Although it doesn't look too much different from the first photos, this is showing up through round 38 in the pattern, and the last picture was only round 27 (and they get more and more stitches each round...I'm up to 256 stitches in each round already). The length of my double pointed needles prevents me from stretching it out for a proper photo.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Diane in Chico, CA writes, "About flash pictures of that lovely red lace... I read a tip someplace that said if you are having trouble taking flash pictures close up, then back up and use the zoom feature on your camera instead (you *do* have zoom, right?).

When I first got this camera a number of years back, the one big critique of it was that the flash is too bright. I've tried a number of solutions, none of which has worked including your idea of moving back from the subject and zooming and I've even tried putting various layers of opaque tape over the flash. None of the solutions has worked very well.

Kate writes, "I can't get beyond knitting scarves. It's reading patterns that does me in."

I can truly understand this. I think any knitting class for beginners should review basic "pattern reading skills" in the class. But there is hope. My skills in pattern reading (and writing) are now well established, but it took a long time to get used to this strange new shorthand.

Adam Spector Hodgkins Memorial Fund