First FOs of 2011

I thought for sure with being part of the Self Imposed Sock Club 2011, my first FO would definitely be a pair of socks (not my socks - I took this pic. during Lucy Neatby's workshop in Mahone Bay a few years ago)... and I am so close to being done a pair, it isn't funny (mere rows away from doing the final toe graft), but yesterday a knitting emergency of sorts came up, forcing the socks back into the project bag.

A friend of mine has been planning to get a new puppy , and she and I went shopping for puppy supplies yesterday, thinking they would be getting the puppy in a week. I went home, and started cruising Ravelry looking for a pattern that I could knit up for the new pup, thinking I had a week to get it completed (visions of puppy sweaters were running through my head). Not an hour passed after I got home and the phone rang - it was my friend, very excited, saying the puppy breeder called, and the puppies can go to their new homes whenever the families want to go get them ... so my friend , her hubby and kids are loading into the car the next day to go get their new baby. I wished them well, grabbed more coffee, and went back to Ravelry ... the search was not a leisurely one anymore! I had a deadline ... and then I found it! A pattern that would be cute, fast to knit (I hoped) and tough enough to withstand little sharp puppy teeth for a few weeks (after being a momma to 3 pups over the years, I've learned that nothing lasts ... so not getting attached is good!).

I cast on at 4 p.m., hoping that the pattern would be quick, and that things like supper would magically appear (they did - T came home from work with groceries in hand - he had something in mind that he wanted, and set to work making it), and amazingly, the dumbbell was done less than 2 hours later! It was so much fun, I cast on for a second immediately (as I am known to do!). Poof! 2 toys waiting to be felted before bedtime!
I used needles a full mm larger than the pattern calls for, and the felting on the colourful one isn't as tight as it should be (not sure if I overstuffed them, or if the large needles are to blame ...but ladders have now been fixed with my first attempt at needles felting). Wow! Needle Felting is fun! and easy! and fun! (LOL! did I say that already?) I bought the needle felter tool a year ago, and never tried it. I was a bit scared of it and all its pointiness ... but last night, it saved me! The toy is much cuter with the scrolling, and the gaps are now covered (but in a cute way, not a "I arsed up and now have to fix it in an obvious way" way).


The two dumbbells are now drying over the register, waiting until after supper when we go to meet and greet the new pup ... you can't visit a new baby without a present!
(these toys have been officially tested and endorsed by a big, fluffy kitty).