New FO's...I haz dem.

By now I am sure the whole world has discovered "I Can Haz Cheezburger" and its doggie sister-site, "I Has A Hot Dog." If you have NOT, you are ordered to go IMMEDIATELY HERE and after you have wet yourself laughing, don't bother to change your underwear before going HERE for dose two. If the pictures don't do you in, the captions will.

Anyway, the title of this post was a no-brainer after spending WAY too many hours surfing those two sites. I find myself lapsing into LOLspeak, the official language of these cats and dogs and I can amuse myself for hours in the process. As I have said often, I amuse easily.

All of our crappy weather lately has given me some great knitting time so things have been flying off the needles...um, except for the DNA scarf which is the slowpoke in the mix. But, yes, Meredith, I AM still working on it. You should be able to wear it sometime before the first heat wave of the summer hits. (Damn cables!)

So, in no particular order, here are the latest creations:

My "Hobo Gloves" (at least that is what hubby calls them).


(Dog fur splotch on left glove is courtesy of Isla...didn't see it before I took the pic and was too lazy to take another one after I removed it.)

They are actually called "Hooray for Me" gloves by Marnie MacLean and the pattern is here. They will be great for taking pictures and doing other things outdoors where I need to use my fingers. One of my friends commented that they are good for picking your nose outdoors. Uh...yeah, I guess. (awkward silence.)

My new sweater.



This used some Lopi Lite that was in my stash just waiting for the right fair-isle yoked sweater pattern to cross my path. Thanks to Norah Gaughan and Interweave Knits (Fall 2003), the stars aligned and *voila* I have a new sweater. This was a relatively easy knit that I spent all of our snow day last Wednesday working on. I finished it at around 9:30 that night and discovered that I had bound off too tightly at the neck and couldn't get it over my head! I was ready to shoot myself. But, once again, the wonderful internet knitting community came to my rescue and I found a site about the stretchy bind off which worked like a charm. Phew!

And finally, there is Francois the Lobster.



He was a cute and quick knit up for the Valentine's package we sent off to Meredith. He was also a free pattern and the link to him is here. He was a big hit and a lot of fun to put together.

You may be asking yourself, "Where can I get all of these spiffy pattern ideas?" Well, I'm glad you asked. If you haven't discovered Ravelry.com it's time you did. As a knitter or crocheter you will find yourself in a cyberwonderland that will change your life. Ravelry offers you an on-line community where you can log your projects, catalog your stash, list your future ideas in a queue and keep track of your knitting/crocheting library. And you can see everyone else's projects, stash, queue and library as well. If you see a project you like you can click on it and see where the pattern came from and what yarn was used to create it. There is a HUUUUUGE list of groups you can join with some of the most amazing and unusual affiliations. Are you a Joni Mitchell fan or a Procrastinator or an Empty Nester or a Smartass Yarn Ho? Then there is a group for you with an active discussion forum. There is even a feature called Radar where you can see all of the posts to every forum -- and there are hundreds of them -- as they appear in real time. It is a truly amazing site. The only caution I throw out is that it is dangerously addictive. With over 40,000 members you will be tempted to spend inordinate amounts of time that could be otherwise spent knitting or reading or eating or sleeping or being gainfully employed on the Ravelry site. But I guarantee you it will be enjoyable time spent.

The site is the brainchild of a Boston area couple, Jess and Casey, and their adorable Boston Terrier, Bob, the site's mascot. Since it is technically still in the Beta testing phase, you need to add your email to the request list to be added manually to the group, a process that can take a few days. But it is well worth the wait. Visit the site here and check out the screenshots, ooh and aah over all of the features and put your email address in to get added to the group. You won't regret it!

Here is one more shot from "I Has a Hotdog." God, I love those two sites!!!

loldogs are funny dog pictures!