New Orleans - Part One

I've been trying to figure out the best way to show you my New Orleans photos. It'll take two or three posts. Reading this post, you'll probably be thinking... umm... did you do any work at all while you were in New Orleans?! Yes! Five out of six of the days were work days. I'll show those in the next post. I'm waiting for someone to send photos of me using power tools. Turns out I'm rather awesome at cutting stuff up with a chop saw.

I got a lot of fun stuff in on the one free day I had, plus the two nights we went out.

I got to New Orleans a day before I had to be at Camp Hope (more on Camp Hope later). I wasn't sure what free time I would have during the week so I gave myself a day to explore. Good thinking: by the time we ended our work days I was too tired to do much else. Unfortunately I didn't have time to explore anywhere else but the Quarter. Oh well - next time!

The French Quarter is still kickin' it:


Early morning ritual: hosing down Bourbon St. I usually avoid Bourbon St. because, well, I'm not a big drinker. I'm no longer in college nor do I wish I was young again. I'm also not prone to shouting "woo hoo! party!" at random strangers for no apparent reason. (No worries if you're one of those who like to shout at random strangers. I respect that - I'm just not that animated.) On this trip however I was comforted by the smell of old beer emanating from the street. I took it as a sign that things are going to be okay in New Orleans.


Andrew Jackson is still watching over Jackson Square:


Within a block from each other on Chartes St.:



Yarn!


The Quarter Stitch is a very friendly yarn store. It might be small in size but the yarn selection is choice. They have a wall of Koigu. I may have bought some as a souvenir. While I was there there was a young guy shopping for his girlfriend. He was partying in NO with his buddies but still managed to bring home yarn for her. Halfway through his shopping one of his friends waiting outside quietly passed him a to-go cup full of beer.

Every time I've returned from a trip to New Orleans, I am always asked the same question: where'd you eat? Even though five of the seven days I ate at Camp Hope I managed to get my fill of the required New Orleans food:

• Coffee and chickory cafe au lait and beignets from Cafe du Monde? Heck, yeah.


• Gumbo: I had the best chicken and anduille gumbo I've ever had from The Gumbo Shop in the French Quarter. If you want to make some good chicken and andouille gumbo, check out this recipe. All his recipes look amazing.


• Crawfish: on our last day the staff from the National Trust New Orleans office gave us a tour of the city. Before we started the tour they surprised us with boiled crawfish. They weren't going to let us leave NO without teaching us the proper way to eat them. I loved the tails but must admit I'm squeamish about the heads. Hopefully no one noticed what a wuss I am about shellfish.


• Po-boy: After filling us with crawfish and touring the city, they took us to Parkway Bakery and Tavern. I had my first ever oyster po-boy. My god. The ingredients are so simple; fried oysters, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayo and french bread. I never ordered one before because I always thought, what's the big deal they got all that where I live, too. But something about that soft crust french bread makes the grease and oyster juice mix with the mayo and tomatoes and creates a soupy mess of the most amazing sandwich. Hold on... just thinking about that po-boy has got me daydreaming again... I need a moment.

Margaret was one of the people in my group. Here she is making friends with a crawfish:


More later!

I'm back (and have been put On Notice)

I got back from New Orleans this week, but have been too busy catching up with work to sort out my photos. I'll do that this weekend. Warning: I took tons of photos!

My friend Chris informed me today that until I share my New Orleans photos I am officially "On Notice". You know it's serious when you're listed above Grizzly Bears.


Guess I better organize my photos.

(www.shipbrook.com/onnotice for funzies)

Thank You

Unbelievable. After only three days there is not much left in my destash pile. Thank you to everyone who bought something. I know some of you even broke your yarn diet to do it. I've raised most of what I needed to just by selling a small portion of my stash.

If you are interested in knitterly ways to help New Orleans, in particular the Lower Ninth Ward, check out what Christy (Confessions of a Misplaced Southern Belle) is doing. She has created The House that Yarn Built. Her goal is for people to donate to Make It Right in the name of The House that Yarn Built. Make It Right is Brad Pitt's foundation; the goal is to build 150 homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. These homes will be raised to withstand flooding and will be environmentally friendly. If 7800 knitters donated $20 (the cost of a skein of sock yarn) it would build one house. Check out the details (and great prizes!) The House that Yarn Built.

I had a big rant here about righting the wrongs done to New Orleans. But we all know what happened. And we all know it'll take years to make things right again. And we all know that even if the media has moved on to the next big story, New Orleans is still rebuilding (and restoring *says I, the preservation nerd*). So I deleted my rant :-)

Thank you again to everyone who bought yarn.

Next week: I have rediscovered my love of knitting and will have some FO's to show you!

Destashing for a good cause

Happy Super Duper Tuesday. Even better... happy Mardi Gras!

It's been over two years since Hurricane Katrina and there is still a lot of restoration work to be done. I've been talking about going for two years now. I finally signed up. I am spending a week in New Orleans volunteering for the National Trust for Historic Preservation through Rebuilding Together New Orleans (RTNO). I'm going to help to restore an older house in a low income neighborhood. If you're interested in doing this, too, you can request more info here.

I am so excited about this! In order to be able to do this, however, I need to destash for cash to help pay my way there. If by any chance I have to cancel my plans due to unforeseen reasons, all the money will be donated to Rebuilding Together New Orleans.

Here are the details: I've put what's for sale on my here. There is some great yarn for sale: Koigu, Socks That Rock, Fleece Artist, Sunshine Yarns, Jo Sharp, Lorna's Laces and more.

If you see something you like, claim it by commenting, then email me your contact info at threedogknits at gmail dot com. I will send you a PayPal invoice. Prices include shipping in the U.S.

All my yarn is stored in ziplock bags in a smoke-free home filled with cute dogs. I've never had a problem with dog fur on my stored yarn, but still, there are dogs around so I thought I should mention that. My dogs have many talents but their fur cannot penetrate ziplock bags. FO's are another story, as they like to cuddle with my knitting projects. But I digress... buy my yarn! Ask your friends to buy my yarn!


You can also find the same info on my Ravelry trade/sell page.

A bad week for knitting, my 2008 Resolutions, a FO, and the Best Cupcakes (I've) Ever Made

In that order. Sorry for the long post.

It was a bad week of knitting for me. I have absolutely nothing to show for a week in which I managed to knit for at least an hour every evening. Unless you count two swatches but no one wants to see swatches. Even the swatches were frustrating. Here is what I attempted to do this past week:

• Pick up stitches to knit the collar of my first sweater (so close to being done!). I'm supposed to pick up 82 stitches on the right side. If I pick up every stitch I can I get 100+ stitches. If I skip every other one I get 50ish stitches. Where is the 82?! I worked on this for two evenings then put it down to start...


• A Friday Harbor sock. I started it twice before I got smart and googled "Friday Harbor" to find the pattern correction. If you ever decide to knit these, read Margene's excellent explanation on how to knit the first chart. Decided I need a sock break and knit some...


• Test swatches for Fyne Vest and the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. The swatch for Fyne measures fine but the purl side of my color work looks bad. As for the Tangled Yoke: how can I get exactly the same measurements with a US 4 as I did with a US 5? Not quite psyched up enough to start Fyne, and frustrated with my Tangled Yoke swatches, I decided to chill out and knit...


• Some Endpaper Mitts. I spent an hour last night learning the Italian Tubular Cast On, getting it all wrong, giving up and learning the regular (English?) Tubular Cast On, which resulted in the most beautiful cast-on I've ever knit. Unfortunately it was way too tight; after knitting the ribbed section I tried it on and couldn't get it over my hand. So late last night I frogged it. I ended up drinking wine and watching Harry Potter and the OOP in a surly, surly mood.

That was my week of knitting. But did I really accomplish nothing? Sometimes when I have a frustrating time working on something I have a tendency to give up and start something simple. My first instinct was to scrap it all and start a stockinette sock, just so I'd have something to show for my week. But for the past couple weeks I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish this year; what my knitting goals are. If you haven't read Christy's awesome post about her goals and need a knitting pep talk, read it (and check in on the progress of her Autumn Rose sweater!). I'd like to raise the bar on my knitting like she is. So my 2008 Knitting Resolutions are:

• Less socks. I'm sure I'll always have a pair of socks on the needles but it is time to break out and try new projects. I have a list of socks I want to make this year, including many Nancy Bush socks, but it is a much smaller list than last year. Less socks also means buying less (or no) sock yarn this year. I have plenty.


• More color-work. It is time to try some of the projects I've been dreaming of. I am starting with the Fyne vest.


• Knit more sweaters and other larger projects. Stop thinking of my knitting as a race to finish as many FO's as possible and concentrate on learning new skills and enjoying the process. This year in the queue is Fyne, Tangled Yoke, Central Park Hoodie, Rusted Root and Green Gable (okay I'm a little behind - I know you all have already knit these).

I do have my first FO of 2008. Another pair of Hederas. This time in the Yarnahoy (colorway is "Shores of Andaman") I won from Alyson last year. They're for my mom. While she was visiting me over the holidays I decided she had to head back up north with a new pair of socks. I let her choose the yarn out of my stash; her hands went right to the Yarn Ahoy. I love the way it knit up (no pooling): this yarn is soft as buttah.


I did accomplish one thing last week. I baked what I am calling The Best Cupcakes (I've) Ever Made. I found chockylit's cupcake blog while searching for cupcake recipes and tried her Chili Chocolate cupcakes with Chili Chocolate Ganache to bring to my neighborhood porch party. Soooo awesome. If you do not love chocolate and chili as much as I do (I love chocolate and chili so very very much) you could always leave out the chili I suppose. I think next I'll try her Lavender Cream Filled Cupcake with Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting.

My cupcake photos came out blurry. Instead I leave you with a photo of the girls. Have a sweet week!

And the winner is...

...Pikku-Kettu! She is the winner of two skeins of Socks That Rock. Thank you to everyone who commented on my Blogiversary post!

There is not a lot of knitting getting done at the moment. I have a huge work project that is taking most of my time this week. I have so much stuff to show you: some FO's from the past few months, some WIP's and some upcoming projects. As of last week I have amassed quite a collection of Rowan Felted Tweed and my fingers are twitching to get started on some sweaters. But all that will have to wait until next week! Work first, then knit :-(

The official "I Am Sorry I Am Such A Lame Blogger, Please Still Be My Friend, I Miss You... Contest"

Yes, it does seem as if I dropped off the face of the earth.

There is no dramatic or scandalous reason I haven't blogged since August. Everybody is healthy and content here at ThreeDogKnits. Jackson got to go on vacation with me in November. Betty is fat and happy. Sasha didn't eat a single glass ornament this holiday season (a Christmas miracle!). Time just got away from me.

One of my resolutions (which I'm making up as I go along, as I am too disorganized to put them in a list) is to blog more. I have really enjoyed making blog friends this past year and don't want to let those connections fizzle because I am too busy (or lazy) to post! I have kept up with your blogs, even if I haven't commented as much as usual.

So, to kick the new year off right, I am having a contest. The reason for the contest is twofold: 1) because it is my blogiversary! and 2) to make up for being so lame. It is the most simple and elementary of blog contests; anyone who leaves me a comment between now and.... let's say next Wednesday, January 16th by noon EST, will have their names thrown into an imaginary hat, at which time I will randomly select one name. Possible comment topics include: your 2008 resolutions, what you think my 2008 resolutions should be, general greetings to me and my dogs, and lastly, whether I should buy a sewing machine, a Wii, or a vacuum cleaner that actually picks up dog hair with the money I am going to save from not buying a gajillion skeins of sock yarn this year (okay, there's another resolution).

The prize: one lucky winner will be the recipient of not one, but two skeins of Socks That Rock lightweight: Gingerbread Dude and Sugarplums (no longer available on Blue Moon's website).


Random items:

• Yesterday I bought Sufjan Steven's "Songs for Christmas", which I am listening to right now. I love it. I put it on and immediately got the urge to bake more Christmas cookies. Yes, I am still listening to Christmas music on January 9th. Therefore is it any surprise I don't have any New Year resolutions to share? By my calculations I don't have to have those done until next week.



• I am also totally digging The National "Boxer". Buy it. Listen to it. Listen to it again and enjoy it even more than the first time.



• Someone found my blog by googling "shuffleboard for dog". To this person I say, Wait! Come back!! I have two questions. Is this for real? And why don't I know about shuffleboard for dogs?