Knitting!

While my life right now is mostly "grr, grrr, bark, bark, BARK!" I have been getting in some knitting time. I finally finished the last stupid hat from this stupid giant skein of yarn. Hat knitting is definitely my zen. I ended up knitting for much longer than I should have without resting and my thumbs have been kind of sore. But I started some new things.

Erin and I are having a very casual knitalong for the Celtic Bunny Hat from Toots Le Blanc for our podcast listeners. You just need to cast on by the end of the month to be entered in a prize drawing. I finally got around to starting mine this weekend. The merino/angora yarn, also from Toots Le Blanc is delicious.



I also wanted a project that didn't have a chart. So I finally cast on for the Mondo Cable Cardi in Dream in Color Classy, Black Parade.



It feels like it's been forever since I started a sweater.

Rufus

We got a new dog today. Meet Rufus T. Firefly. The kids named him after the Groucho Marx character in Duck Soup. He's a black lab mix from the Seattle Animal Shelter. He's fully grown and about 60 lbs. He and Isabella seem to be getting along pretty well. There's been a lot of running around and playing so far today. He's a bit of a barker so we're going to need to work on that.

Welcome to the family, Rufus!

This is Why I Hate People

Someone decided that--instead of using one of the many free and legal parking spaces available on our street--he would park his truck across our driveway and on our parking strip, blocking both of our garages and decimating the wood chip pile.



Nice move, asshole.

Bella would never park like that.



ETA: The police actually came a while after we called them. And now the truck is gone.

Update

The shelter called back and Bella #2 has already found a home. I'm very happy for her and the lucky family that gets to have her.

Also, we went to see Up tonight and it was fantastic. I cried at least four times and laughed a lot. I want to see it again. Really wonderful filmmaking.

Doppelganger

I have been thinking about getting another dog. Wes is apprehensive, to say the least, since we already have 100+ pounds of dog wandering around the house. But yesterday I was bored and started looking at dogs available on Petfinder.org. Then I found this listing. It's another two year old female black lab mix named Bella! I kind of teared up when I saw her, knowing she needed a family. We have a call in to the shelter.

Big Dog, Little Cushion

Belly was lying on a sofa cushion that had fallen to the floor the other day.



Okay, it's funnier from the top view.



Someone asked in the comments a while ago about just how big Isabella is. I measured her and she is 25" at the shoulder and from her collar to the top of her tail she is 30" long! She really is a big girl.

Titanic

I took a bunch of photos of Isabella this weekend with the camera resting on the floor. (Note: Next time I do this I should clean the floor first.) I love these because they really convey the enormity of this dog. Plus her silly and sweet disposition.

One Year Later

One year ago we brought Isabella home. 30-40 pounds later she has become a part of our family and gives us so much joy.

LOLBell

Wes made Isabella into an LOL!

Want

Elusive Mr. Squirrel, always out of reach.

I Don't Want Isabella Getting Jealous

I have adorable video of her too.

Meet My New Boyfriend

One of my spinning friends is fostering a guide dog puppy. Donner is cute as can be and likes to stay close to his handler.

Kooky Puppy

Bella loves to lie on her back. She holds a toy above her face and dangles it down gracefully into her mouth.

Nearly a Bust

Today did not go as planned. We were going to have dim sum at Jade Garden then head to the Seattle Art Museum first thing this morning. But Bella has developed some sort of medical issue (gross and not worth discussing) so Wes took her to the vet. They haven't found out what's wrong yet but she's otherwise fine. So we head off to the International District two hours later than expected. The wait at Jade Garden was long and the kids were not feeling patient. Wes ran over to the House of Hong and got us a table immediately. You know there's a reason that one place had a long wait and the other had no wait. The food was meh. We ate quickly and headed to Kinokuniya. Usually the kids are game to look at all the Pokemon stuff for a while but today they just weren't feeling patient. Fortunately I found this cute lunchbag book. I'm participating in a lunch bag swap* and this is just the inspiration I need.

We headed to the museum and scored the greatest parking spot in the world. We were feeling happy and lucky as we headed in the door. Then there in the lobby were more people waiting in line than I have ever seen on all my trips to SAM combined in the last decade. It was mobbed. I got in the line to get a membership. I waited about 10 minutes and the line didn't move. It didn't keep the woman behind me from trying to shimmy around me or just stand so close behind me she kept bumping me forward. I was feeling really frustrated and let down. We headed back to the car. Wes got the great idea to stop at Le Fournil before they closed for some half-priced pastries (we were still hungry from the sub-par dim sum). We drove over only to find the pastry case empty. We trudged back to the car. We headed to U Village to get my son a book we promised him. At this point we were all feeling hungry, frustrated and generally pissy. We got the book and got out of there. When we got home I threw myself on the couch in a fit of pique (and MSG?) and fell dead asleep for three hours.

In an attempt to salvage something good out of the day, Wes fed the kids then gathered them up to accompany us to dinner at El Camino. They were reasonably well behaved and Wes and I got to have a grown up dinner. Nice.

I've been knitting away on my socks and have just turned the heel on the second one. they should be done in a day or two.

* I have been driving myself nuts on what to make. Do I sew something or knit something? I have too many ideas and I'm afraid my sewing skills might fall short of the visions of fancy-ass lunch bags in my head.

Only Good Things to Report

My Go With the Flow socks are both going and flowing.



My latest and hardest Dear Jane block came out pretty well.



23 pieces! Woof.

I had a group of friends over on Sunday for crafting. Amanda is trying out English paper piecing. She handed me a stack of paper templates. "Here," she said, like a dealer, "why don't you try it?" And, like a junkie, I was immediately hooked.



My dog is still really cute.



She is HUGE. People keep asking me if she's part Great Dane. I'm hoping not but she is definitely a very tall girl. And sweet as pie.

In Case I Haven't Mentioned it Lately

I have a really cute dog.

Don't Judge Too Harshly

When I got back from Long Beach Wes told me that Bella had gotten hold of my finished Endpaper Mitt. I looked at it and other than being a little crusty it seemed fine. When I finished the second one I put the pair on to take a picture.



Rut roh!
Fortunately the yarn was broken in the ribbing. So I ripped out and reknit the ribbing. Hopefully that should take care of it. And I'm sure she feels very badly about what she did.

Sorry for Radio Silence

Well my six-day straight (while sick) work week has ended. I have one day off then it's back to work and all the counting, counting, counting. Working in a yarn shop is great until inventory. Yesterday I was doing all the needles and notions. So very tedious. Worse than intarsia!

I have been knitting though. I just finished the thumb increases on my first Endpaper Mitt.



This is two old skeins of Koigu KPM that have been in the stash for years. Nice to finally put them to use.

Wes got me a Sew-EZ table for Christmas.



I have finally moved my sewing machine off the dining room table. It was getting kind of crowded with the machine and the two laptops. I was so excited I started sewing up little scrap blocks. Why I didn't work on one of my current UFOs I have no idea.

I seem to have passed my cold on to my oldest son. I'd feel worse for him if he weren't being such a little jerk about it. You've probably already seen the Man Cold video but just in case. This is my life.



And every time I sit down to use the computer I get this.


Tug?

And if I don't play with her she gets all dejected.




So that's my life right now in a nutshell.

Belly Really Likes Her Bully

Isabella stuck her bully stick under the loveseat cushion and then couldn't find it. So she removed a large swath of upholstery.



It was very tiring.

Belly Likes Her Bully

Like all puppies, Isabella likes to chew. She has thankfully only destroyed one flip flop in her four weeks with us. We've gotten her a variety of toys to try to keep her occupied. I got her a bone last week that was one of those man-made composite things. She enjoyed it but it was gone in a few hours and left her and the whole house looking like this.



A friend suggested bully sticks. I got her one on Friday and it lasted several days and she really loved it. Wes wondered aloud the other night as to what a bully stick really is. I looked it up. Ay carumba! It's gross but how can you argue with this face?

I Can Has Foot?

Bad Sock!

You naughty sock. You took up three days of my knitting time. First the pattern errors. Then my misunderstanding the pattern. Now your gauge is too floppy. I may have spaced out and missed a pattern row (inexcusable, it's so easy). You are not going to happen. It's off to Frogsville for you.

What to do when even your easy knitting is too challenging? Knit more garter stitch squares. So easy you can knit them in the dark at a school play.



Isabella says, "Get it together, Mom."

Chasing My Own Tail

I spent a good long time hunting around for my next sock project. I have about 8 kajillion in my Ravelry queue. So of course I started a completely new one, Oc-Toe-Ber FiddleSticks Socks from Southwest Trading Company. I wanted to try out the Tofutsies I bought at the retreat. I cast on and knit a few inches of ribbing. Then I launched into the pattern and realized almost immediately that the ribbing pattern was wrong. I found the errata on the Tofutsies Sock Club Yahoo Group. If I had looked closely at the Ravelry page for these socks I would have seen that there was errata. I've ripped it out and am starting again.

Fortunately I'm not the only one around here chasing my own tail.

So What's New?

(I just got a laptop and am now blogging in a coffee shop like everyone else in Seattle.)

I just started to work on my second Crystalline Lattice sock. I was waylaid by all those garter squares. I knit an additional 4 or 5 over the last few days. I've worked a bit on my sock yarn blanket. I'm actually coming near to the end of my superwash scraps. When that happens I'll set it aside until I knit more socks. I sat down and finally mapped out the cabled ribbing for Am Kamin. In theory I'm ready to restart it. Again.

Yesterday was all about Isabella. There are more shots of her in my Flickr. She has been an angel so far. We've only had one accident. She is calm, gentle and totally devoted after just one day. We bought her a cheap dog bed while out shopping for her crate and collar. We assumed she wouldn't use it but thought, "What the heck." She loves it. She picks up a toy and takes it to her bed. We brought her upstairs last night so we could watch tv. She didn't want to get on the sofa with us. She didn't want to lie on the floor. We brought up her bed and she slept on it while we watched Heroes. She's has picked up a few things that she found on the floor to chew on but happily and easily drops them when told to. She sleeps in her crate without scratching or crying and didn't have any accidents in it yet. All in all, she's an amazingly well-behaved, sweet, affectionate puppy. We're not sure how old she is. Somewhere around 6-8 months.

I hope to get my act in gear and finish some sewing projects soon and photograph all my new yarn from the retreat.

Time to go.

Big News

Big, black, fuzzy, floppy, cuddly news.



Meet Isabella.

Zasu

Earlier this week we found out that Zasu, at age 20, was in kidney failure. Wes had a vet appointment for this morning to learn how to medicate her and give her fluids. When he went to collect her he found she had passed away last night under my desk.

She was the most affectionate cat I have ever heard of. She would wrap her paws around your neck and nuzzle your face. She would do that with any stranger that would pick her up.

Goodbye, sweetie.

Hugo

We put our boy to sleep today. Last night we took him to the park and let him sniff to his heart's content.



I keep thinking I still hear him on the sofa. Goodbye, huggy bear.

"Guess You'll Have to Wash That Again"

Over the weekend I washed a few sweaters. When we all came down to breakfast this morning we found this.


Still life with Cat on Rogue

My Pets Are All Broken

Things are not looking very happy on the pet-front. Hugo (beagle) continues to decline. The lesions in his mouth are spreading quickly. He's bleeding a lot. It's not fun. He looks sad and tired most of the time. Then, just as Wes and I start talking about taking him to the vet to be put down, he rallies. He's happy, he's playful, he's jumping. Then we feel awful for even thinking of ending his life.

Zasu (cat) has decided that she doesn't want to be left out of the sad-decrepit-dying pet scene. With her 20th birthday rapidly approaching her health seems to have taken a sudden downturn. She vomits all the time. Sometimes there's blood in it. She's thin, creaky and old all of a sudden. On Saturday I turned the corner in the kitchen and found her crouched in an odd position. I got down on the floor and called her to me. She just yowled. Wes came over to see what was going on. She stayed in the same position yowling. Then we realized that Wes and shut the under-sink cabinet doors on her tail and she was yowling because she was stuck! Oh dear, I'm still laughing at that one.

Rose-Kim Pets

Zasu has been completely baffled lately. She used to sleep all day on top of my monitor. I replaced the monitor a few months ago and got a flat screen. She spent several days standing on my desk peering behind the new monitor waiting for the old, warm resting spot to come back. When she realized that it wasn't coming back she took a new perch--the paper tray for my printer. I'm pretty sure this will void my warranty with HP.



Hugo's still hanging in there. We are constantly watching him for signs that he is uncomfortable or in pain. So far, so good. He still has a great appetite and breaks into the closet where we keep Zasu's food everyday--sometimes more than once--to eat all of her food.

I've started the twisted stitch and cable pattern on the Am Kamin swatch cap. Only a few rounds so far so not much to show you. Poppy sleeves, knit two at a time, are about 5 inches long. Just a few more days of knitting time on those. Estonian socks are a few inches longer. Lots of dabbling going on. Not a lot of progress.

Shop Knitting

As a yarn shop employee I knit lots of shop samples. We try to have a knitted item--not just a swatch--for everything in the store. The consistent problem for the staff is that we get so excited and start projects but we don't have the time to finish them. We rarely have a quiet moment in the shop to work on any of these projects. But two of mine now have deadlines so I brought them home to work on last night.

I'm teaching a "Socks on the Magic Loop" class. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and knit a shop sample sock for my class sample. The students normally use worsted weight yarn but yesterday I cast on for a Fleece Artist Basic Merino sock. The pattern is printed inside the label. We received an enormous box of the yarn in the last few weeks. The yarn is lovely to knit and the colors are really luscious (they're a bit blown out in this photo). I just need to knit another inch before next Saturday.



I'm also designing a felted teddy bear in Ecological Wool. All the shops participating in this year's LYS Tour will be creating a one skein pattern to give away during the event. I need to finish knitting this guy and write up the pattern by the first week of April which is shockingly soon.



I need to finish this guy up quickly to see how he felts. I'm fairly certain I'll have to knit a second version based on the felting.



Hugo is still hanging in there. His appetite is good (to a fault). He has energetic periods. But he also has difficulty breathing at times and periodic bleeding in his mouth from the lymphoma lesions. His original prognosis this fall was two to six months. He's stuck it out five months so far. The boys are hoping he makes it to his 11th birthday in July. Wes and I are not as hopeful.