It makes me laugh EVERY time.

Vote early, vote often!

Remember the contest I told you about? Now that I've said nice things about my knitting pals, I need your help! Fifty percent of the score is the readers vote, so I have to bang my own drum. Here's the link; I am number 14! Thank you!!!

A new generation of knitter-

I was on Ravelry this morning, and happened to see a contest notice in the Asian Knitters group. It was for the Bergere de France's celebration on Mélusine tricote's blog, and I MUST play! They want to know what it's like to be a new generation knitter. What? Me? I am an old

school knitter! Or maybe not?

It is odd to write about a new generation of knitter. I learned to knit in the pre-Internet days, the days when I scoured the magazine rack, longing for French yarns, Italian yarns, British yarns; yarns that were difficult to obtain in Texas. I was isolated. I could knit, yes, but my skills grew very slowly. To learn new things, I relied on sketches in "How to Knit" books, and laborious instructions. I became lost on projects that were, in retrospect, simple.

In 2003, something happened. I joined a bulletin board, and got a chance to talk with other knitters. My knitting world EXPLODED. I found people who thought like me, knit like me, were LIKE me. I discovered that not all patterns are correct, and my friends could help me navigate the errors! My new knitting friends wore yarn under their blouses to check for roughness BEFORE they knit it. Learning knitting became FUN!

The influx of new ideas, new ways, and new know-how was GREAT. I learned how to knit two colors two-handed on YouTube, and posted a how to crochet clip for someone I knew. I could easily email a friend to talk about a pattern, a yarn, an IDEA, and work thru the execution. I discussed the color plan for this top with a woman who lives 1000 miles (1400 km) away! I could not show a badly-made project, so my skills grew quickly.

At some point, I became friends with these online knitters. As a group, we've done blankets for new babies, shawls for grieving widows, and slippers for sick friends. We've knit our way thru crimes and blessings, lost parents and siblings. We've made breasts for cancer patients. I've wagered sock yarn on television show contestants in a Ravelry group. We even had a 'bridal shower' for a friend-and we all gave her yarn e-gift vouchers!

At first, my husband laughed at my "imaginary friends", but as time passed, he came to see how solid we knitters are. I had a surgery recently, and my post box was stuffed with letters and parcels

from women I have never seen. I found a knitter in Malta who is a distant relative (very distant-the marriage between the two families took place in 1854)! I was even able to find local knitting friends!!!

My knitting world is SO big now. My knitting has no boundaries. I learned how to read a Japanese pattern on-line, and found sites with knitting translations, so French, Spanish, and German patterns are not confusing anymore! The patterns all start the same-needle size, tension swatch, and cast on! If I run short of yarn or need something for a project, I can buy yarn and patterns in ANY country, either through a store front or on-line auction.

It is a big, big world, but the community IS, dare I say it.....tightly knit! We share our lives as well as our projects. In a world that can be very impersonal, we have an oasis. That, to me, is the best part about being a "new generation knitter".

Knit on!!!

Life in the sticks

This was a priority package at work yesterday. The roosters complained about their cramped, dark quarters.

No knitting content whatsoever

I haven't knitted in a week. I am not sure what happened. Dog puddles? Dog piles? Hysterectomy? Work?

Work?? Yes, I went out and found a job. With the US Postal Service. God knows I use them enough, might as well work there.

I went to my orientation the week of Thanksgiving, and have been been going in for a few hours a day to work behind the counter and behind the front, sorting mail.

I understand now why people go off.

There are specific deadlines-if the post box says "last pick-up at 5", you had better be out there at 1700L with your scan gun. Or 1701L, but certainly NOT 1659L. All the mail needs to be in the rental boxes at a certain time, and sorted by a certain time. There are deadline stresses every day.

There are also personnel stressors. In my orientation class of 15, no one was eligible for benefits. The woman who's training me? Nada. Which is all well and good in a down economy, but I wonder how well that's going to go for people who get bitten by a dog. And you know why mail carriers have a satchel? To defend them (along with pepper spray) against bad dogs.

So it's interesting. And it's hard work. I'm learning a lot!

Three Ps for Sonny

Package.

Play.

Pooped.

Thank you for the nice puppy prezzies, Stacey. He loves them.

The new parent report.

OMG. It's been over 10 years since we had a new puppy. Boy, they are a lot of work! I've learned a lot about my dog, and discovered a few pitfalls of getting a Craigslist dog. The first thing is that he was almost certainly undernourished. It was a little creepy, because this guy was SO good at standing out on the back porch picking up dead moths (a protein source). He clocked in at the vet's last week, 11 weeks old and weighing 22 lbs. We figure he's put on at least a pound since then, and is looking like a much bigger dog! Just compare the photo from 10 days ago!! (I know the angles are different, but look at how much more tile he covers!)

Although puppies need a lot of rest, I certainly haven't had any. The first day or two we had Sonny, this devil dog look really creeped me out. It's just his ducts. We've been working extra hard to learn "potty outside". His former owner kept the boxers on cement and flagstone, so El Sunny knows he's supposed to pee there. Getting him to stop crapping on the porch is gonna be a chore, but we've kinda figured out that Mom doesn't like it when he poops inside. He's a really good puddlemaker. I just keep praising him when he gets it right.

Our neighbors were kidding around, and said Sonny hit the jackpot. That's only a partial joke. I don't have any good things to say about his former owner. When we visited, he told me the pups had their first Parvo shot and needed a booster, blah, blah. The next day, when I emailed him for the records "I had a busy day at work." Like I care. The NEXT day, he emailed me that he was confused. He had only paid for shots for the mother. This made me so mad, because it put every puppy in danger. I could deal with "I went to Tractor Supply and bought the vaccines, here's the lot number I gave him." I could deal with "I didn't start their series," even tho that screams cheapskate. But to tell us a puppy had shots when he had none was a bad, bad thing. Dewclaws? The guy said they hadn't been done. According to the vet, it was a bad home job, as was his tail. Sonny NEEDED to come home with us.

Fortunately, Sonny is an adaptable dog. This week, I have seen him leap 2.5 feet in the air (it is AMAZING what a well nourished pup can do!) and he's chewing on EVERYTHING-but oddly, not little Ian. He simply licked Ian's fingers-the kid must have tasted like turkey and string beans.

He was a very good pup, and slept most of our 6 hour trip to DMILS, and most of the way back. I have to give him lots of car practice.

And my DH is absolutely smitten.