KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Whew – time just flies by, doesn’t it? These days I look around and another week has come and gone and I am not really doing much.

So, one more entry before February is over and also to get the funny looking cupid out of everyone’s sight. You might have guessed – Brett was the recipient of the Valentines Day Card and he thought is was hilarious.

I have been taking pictures, but not many knitting pictures, sorry. I made a couple of excursions during the last few weeks and I wanted to share some of the photos with you.

I went for the first time to the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. It is Atlanta’s oldest cemetery, as well as one of the largest green spaces, in Atlanta, Georgia. It has a Confederate, a Jewish and an African-American section, as well as Potter's Field, a Bell Tower and tons of monuments and mausoleums. I bought a map to make it easier to find some of the famous people buried at this cemetery.

This is my favorite photo of the day.

I love the way the statue looks with the clouds and the big white spot in the sky. And this picture is also big favorite.

I took this picture through the entrance window of one of the mausoleums. You can’t see the pretty stain glass window from the outside, only from the inside. I thought that was very interesting.

I also spent a Saturday driving around in North Georgia – that was a couple of weekends ago when we had weather in the 70s and one was able to take the top of the car down. ;-)

I love waterfalls!

And I went into one of those country shops besides the road with an interesting assembly of pottery. And of course be now, I forgot the name of the shop. I am not even sure I would remember how to get there...

And finally, I do have a finished knitting project and I took pictures before I gave it away. Shocking, isn’t it… I was asked to knit a dog sweater for a little 4-month old Yorkshire terrier. Sophie belongs to the daughter of a friend of mine. I call Sophie “Ittybitty” because she is so tiny.

I was looking for a sweater pattern in one of my books and then Brett gave me one of his knitting books that is all about dogs sweater (forgot that name as well, sorry). But I didn’t like any of the patterns because they all had several pieces that you had to sew together. You know me – screw that! I made up my own.

It is knitted from the neck down in one piece and you increase after the little turtle neck like for a raglan sweater. It was a fast and easy knit.

Since Sophie’s mom’s favorite colors are lime green and purple, I knitted the sweater in stripes with those two colors. And I am proud to say that I knitted with Caron Simply Soft – yes, ack yarn... I am not using cashmere for a dog sweater that is being cared for by a 12-year-old. I need to take a picture of Sophie wearing the sweater. She looks totally adorable, like a little character from The Sesame Street. The sweater was a hit with Sophie’s mom and I was already asked to knit a bunch more. One of them should be a Georgia Bulldog sweater. So, now I am in the process of designing a bright red sweater with a big black G on it. Stay tuned! I could get convinced to write up the pattern (wasn’t there already a gazillion others I want to write up… GEEZ LOUISE!), just don’t twist my arm too hard!

Other than that I don’t have much to report. It seems 2009 is off to a good start. I have been doing a lot of packing up and moving things around at the house. I started seeing my therapist only every other week. She thinks I am doing great – and I start to believe that, too. Well, at least better. I guess the outlook to spring weather, more outdoor activities and longer days help, too. Plus I feel like my anger and my depression phases are over and I am getting to the point where I am accepting things for what they are. It has been 8 months last Monday since Irwin passed away. On one hand, I can’t believe that is has already been so long ago and on the other hand it still feels like this all just happened yesterday.

I am also looking forward to STITCHES in April in Atlanta and then I am going to a one-week long workshop to John C. Campbell School in June with Jane – whom I haven’t seen in forever!

So that's it for now – my Thursday lunch break is over.