I realize you all haven’t actually seen any of my knitting in a very long time.    So, with great pride, I introduce…

Dottie Dog!

She came from Knitted Toys: 25 Fresh and Fabulous Designs by Zoe Mellor.   I love this book - all of the animals are adorable in it.   I used Elann’s Sonata  instead of the Rowan Handknit Cotton the pattern called for.  Talk about an expensive puppy if I had knit it out of Rowan.

It worked out beautifully - Sonata has a huge color range, so it was easy to substitute.  In the book, Dottie is blue, but since Dottie is going to live with a girl baby, I made her pink.

She’s actually going to live with the boyfriend’s coworker’s daughter, and the boyfriend requested pink.   I’m clearly in love, since I hate pink.   But I love how Dottie Dog turned out, even if she did get into all our food at Panera.

I only used 1 and a half skeins of the pink, but I bought 3 skeins.  So, I have plenty left over.   Her orange nose comes compliments of Monica, because I bought the wrong color of orange from Elann.

Have a happy 4th of July from all of US!

I hope you don’t get a beer can stuck up your butt!

(Picture from Aimee, who says it made excellent chicken from this recipe. Which Dee originally sent me, and I forwarded to Aimee.)

Thanks everyone for all your words of support.  And for being totally rude about Evil Kevin, or as my mother now refers to him as, “Asshole”. 

So, before I finally move on and never mention him again, I thought I’d tell one story about him.

Asshole had food issues.   As in, he was the pickiest eater I ever, ever knew.  He would only eat beef, bacon and selected vegetables.   No fish.  No poultry in any form.  No shellfish.  No pork beyond bacon.  He pushed 300  pounds on a fairly regular basis, as you’d expect for someone who only ate red meat and carbohydrates.  Now, his weight never bugged me - I like my men beefy.   The new guy is nice and beefy.  Especially since it means I get to feel all small and delicate while wearing their t-shirts.   Speaking of which, new guy is always having me wear his t-shirts, including totally cool ones with cats and corporate logos.   Asshole only let me wear TWO of his oldest, rattiest, ugliest t-shirts.  I did steal his old style US Customs t-shirt (which I still wear), but I only managed it because it was way, way, way too small for him.  I still walk around the apartment going “Respect mah Authoritah!”

But, that’s not the point.   Now, I love to cook, and I love trying new foods and recipes.   This was pretty challenging, given his dietary limitations, especially since he was also often doing Atkins.  So, I’d resort to using recipes that had one of the “banned substances” in them, but hiding it.

My favorite ingredient that flew under the radar for 4.5 years?   Chicken Broth.  That’s right.   Chicken Broth was in TONS of stuff.  Stuff he actually really liked.   He’d ask what I put in the couscous or rice, and I’d be like “Oh, water and some spices”.   He’d recoil in horror at the thought of the evil chicken broth, but hah, he ate it.  Muahahaha.

Yes, I was very evil and at the time I felt vaguely bad about it, but you try cooking for someone like that.  Plus, now I can evilly cackle about it.  And I’d never do it to a vegetarian or to someone with a real dietary issue, of course.

Now, on to better subjects!   Monica visited two weekends ago, and she brought me these socks!

If the picture looks familiar, its because Monica sneakily posted them on her blog, and I never did figure out that they were all for me!  The pattern is Whitby from Knitting on the Road, and she used Mountain Colors Weavers Wool in Wilderness.   They fit perfectly.   She said they were thanks for test knitting her sock patterns.  So, not only do I currently have a pair and a half of awesome sockness I knit on my own, now I have a full pair of Special Monica Socks!

Say you find out that your ex-fiance, who dumped you less than a year ago, got married in April.   Better yet, find out that said ex-fiance apparently knocked up his now wife last November, less than 6 months after he dumped you.

Say you were trying really hard to be all like “HAHAHAHA I’m all the better for it, he’s an assmuch,  how about I knit the baby a HAT!”, but really were like “OMG i am now in a FETAL POSITION moaning in pain I must buy something.  I AM SO BITTER even if I am better off in everyway and have a kickass boyfriend who is the best ever and loves me lots. ”

So, which knitting book would you buy?

Monica has suggested these fine titles:

Knitting Lingerie Style

Naughty Needles: Sexy, Saucy Knits for the Bedroom and Beyond (Potter Craft)

Domiknitrix: Whip Your Knitting into Shape (Turtleback)

Monica points out that unfortunately, no one has written “knitting fugly things for fugly babies”.

Okay, I’m way behind on blogging content.   As in, this post will be all about World Wide Knit in Public Day, which was held on…

June 9th, 2007

Julie, Kimberly and I packed our suburban selves up, and Kimberly drove us down to Millenium Park.   Over 60 knitters turned out, and the weather was great.   I did get a little sunburned despite sunscreen and trying to stay in the shade.   Here we are, thanks to a picture taken by Natalia, who also did an awesome job organizing it.   She even had cool pins for all of us!

Julie is wearing a sweater from No Sheep For You, and its really cool.

I have other knitting things to post, but as always, I didn’t upload the pictures.  I’ll try to post again this weekend.  HAHAHAHA