Of dogs, dog adoptions and dog sweaters

the famous Sammie himself in his eponymous sweater!

Project-a-day Kate with Sammie

Tinto: " OH, please, knit me a Sammie Sweater"

Sammy: One of 2 Sammy/Sammie canine's in our fold!

Domino: He strayed into an SF firehouse and eventually Petra brought him home

Bella, adopted from the SF SPCA 2 years ago

Bettie, Nyla's dog

Toby and Franklin: Toby on the left just got adopted from Bay Area Poodle Rescue this week

Kofi, the knit-one-one dog from Bay Area Poodle Rescue--modelling the Sammie Sweater

For those of you who have perused the knit-one-one web site at any length, you will have noticed photos of Kofi here, there and everywhere. (Kofi is the little grey toy poodle)Let me tell you a little about him and other dogs in my life. I am a volunteer with Bay Area Poodle Rescue and Kofi was one of my foster dogs who just decided as soon as he walked into my apartment that he was going to stay! He had shown up on a door step in Northern California, soaking wet, shivering, skinny as a rail, and wearing a knitted sleeve-like garment. He ended up with the aforementioned Bay Area Poodle Rescue and thence to me., Kate one of our fabulous instructors, fell in love with Kofi and kind of thought that maybe some day she would like a little dog of her own. No sooner had she uttered those words aloud than I was "on it". Before I go further. I should say that Bay Area Poodle Rescue is a fabulous organization filled with great volunteers. For example, at the moment we are trying to find a home for another toy poodle. I am the lead volunteer on this dog, but I am being helped by Randi in Oakland, Chris in Belmont, Veronica in Palo Alto, Kim in Red Bluff and Roseann in Modesto---we are a far flung group of very dedicated dog lovers. But back to Kate and her words" Mmm... maybe I'd like a little dog of my own some day". As it turns out, Bay Area Poodle Rescue had just received word---via the incomparable Patty O--- of a little Schnoodle (Schnauzer/Poodle mix) who was looking for a home. I pounced! I showed Kate and her mother pictures and they fell for him immediately. And if you have read Kate's bio, you know Sammie is one lucky dog. Kate was knitting so many sweaters for her pooch that I leaned on her to teach a dog sweater class at knit-one-one. (I bribed her by calling it theSammie Sweater Class!) I make Kofi wear his sweater everyday----kind of like a walking billboard for the class--- I mean he has to earn his keep somehow. He looks a little glum when I put the sweater on, but he very quickly perks up. In fact he positively preens when people stop to admire him and the sweater! The great thing about the pattern Kate has chosen is that it has a gazillion sizes so no matter what the size of your dog, you will find a size that fits. Here in the Bay Area, people associate sweaters with little dogs but of course big dogs get cold too. Take my friend Catherine's whippet Tinto----he is always freezing and definitely needs a good warm gansey.

And no dog post would be complete without a mention of the fabulous Alison who has helped me train of all of the dogs in my life and has started a terrific new venture Metro Dog ----a great place for the dog in your life to spend the day, or the weekend, or the week, or.........yes Metro dog does boarding, day care, training and is an all-round huge asset to dog lovers in the Bay Area. Check it out.

And Kofi's haircut is courtesy of the magic hands of Lena, our groomer in Emeryville. But Lena not only grooms, trains, boards and advises on dog stuff, her studio has lots of buying opportunities too---cute dog toys, tote bags, cards, leashes---all in very good taste. One of her dogs,Benito, even has his own website! It is a great networking site for dog lovers.

peaked hats from New York

So remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that everyone in NYC was wearing peaked hats/caps---take your pick. Well lo and behold the venerable NY Times had the attached pics in their Jan 7th Sunday Edition---in the section where they feature photos of real people. Don't the hats look good? At knit-one-one we would love to offer a class in how to knit a cool peaked cap. I am searching for a good pattern so if any of you know of one, let me know.

Adornments

2007 started off well at knit-one-one with 8 intrepid knitters in the Beginning Knitting Class. Did you notice that I am already calling them knitter? That is because they have indeed joined the ranks of the knitting community. Yeay...more knitters in the world.

2007 has also been exciting with yarn-a-go-gostartingrun-a-go-go run-a-go-go. Some of us are swim-a-go-goers however. Yarn-a-go-go has challenged all of us to move our bodies in some fashion for a total of 100 miles before April 1st. Check it out. It is very fun.

Also fun is the ONE evening upcoming workshop,Jules' Jewels at knit-one-one taught by Julie Weisenberger. As readers of this blog already know, I am wont to rhapsodise about Julie's talents! But this particular class is a match made in heaven for Julie because her ever fertile imagination gets to have free rein. Julie will take a piece of ribbon, a strand of yarn and a nutshell for example, and in a flash she will have created a wonderfully cute little pin. In this workshop, 8 lucky people will get to learn some of her tricks on how to create such wonders.

New York, the Yarn tree, Knitters' Review and the Nora Cuff class

I have just returned from 2 great weeks in NY visiting my children. But before I tell you more about New York, I would like to talk a little about one of the last classes we had at knit-one-one before the holidays---- the Nora Cuff Class.
This was the most silent class at knit-one-one---in other words not as much chatting and joke telling--- and that was because manipulating the stainless steel wire, the beads and the metal needles was not an easy matter ---or so I was told! Actually you can see the concentration in one of the pics. I forgot to mention that the final step in making the cuffs was doing a Kichener stitch---no wonder everyone was so focused. My friend, SoYoung, had not knit in 25 years but the day before the class she refreshed her memory by logging on to knittinghelp.com. I should mention here that SoYoung is an interior designer and so has an abundance of designy genes! Of course she produced a wonderful piece-----hers is the one with the big dark beads. Sandy and Betsy were so jazzed with their cuff that they made many others as Christmas gifts---lucky people who got those as gifts. Kathy finished hers first and seeing how great her cuff looked encouraged the others in their endeavours. ( I am trying to persuade Kathy to teach a class at knit-one-one--shhhh.....) Even Cindy who was silently moaning and groaning finished hers before the 3 hours was up and it looked wonderful. Christine's too looked very snazzy and sophisticated even though she kept muttering that this was harder than lace knitting! Robbie tried valiantly to finish hers before the end of class and she almost made it! Of course all of these creations were made possible by the great teaching of Julie Weisenberger and her terrific pattern (available soon on her website---yes, I will let you know when it launches.) Julie's next class for knit-one-one is
Julie's Jewels---Julie will teach how to create all those wonderful little brooches, pins, flowers and trims that will make your outfit pop. She really does create magic out of thin air--or at least from a few strands of yarn!

New York really does Christmas well with lights and pizazz everywhere you look. It was unseasonably warm but still everyone was wearing their black overcoats. ( Last week the NY Times had a series of photos of people in white coats and I think that the white coaters must have all left town for Christmas because I did not see one white coat!) At any rate I have sworn that my next coat will not be black! In terms of knitted do dads I didn't see anything particularly interesting. Peaked caps are in and my son gave his roommate, Sara, a particularly good version---black (but of course!) with a little leather trim on the crown. I keep forgetting to take photos---sorry!

The only yarn store I visited while there was my favorite, The Yarn Tree, in Brooklyn. I even met the fabulous Linda LaBelle and had a lovely chat about yarns, yarnstores and dogs----she has a very nice dog who actually sleeps in the window---a dog she rescued. I even bought some wonderful Frog Tree bulky alpaca and used it to teach Eoin, my son, to knit. (He picked it up very quickly and those are not the words of a proud mother!) Speaking of learning how to knit,
knit-one-one is launching the 2007 season with a beginning knitting classs. If you have friends or relatives in the Emeryville/ Oakland/ Berkeley area who want to learn how to knit, tell them to check it out. The class will be taught by the irrepresible Kate Freeman. As of this writing there are 2 spaces left in the class.

In last week's Knitters' Review there was a great summary of 2006 in the knitting world. If you don't already subscribe to this free newsletter, researched, written and edited by the terrific Clara Parkes, I would definitely encourage you to give yourself the gift of signing up for it. She and therefore Knitters Review are a mine of information.