Knit the Dog

[...because if I ever run out of yarn--- I can just knit the dogs.]



Saturday, October 25, 2008

If it's not one dog, it's another

Ah, life was chugging along so smoothly. We should have known something would happen. Jack dislocated his hip this morning in a really awful way. When we let the dogs out for business purposes, they generally propel themselves off the deck onto the grass at top speed so they can race around the dog forest looking for intruder squirrels. It rained during the night, and Jack must have slipped on take-off, and he fell with a thud and an unholy screech. We got him into the vet's as soon as they opened-- thankfully they're open Saturday mornings-- and the verdict was dislocated hip, torn ligaments, and the complication of both hips being arthritic (the dogs are almost ten.) So he is on crate rest for a few days, with his leg in a sort of sling, and after that strict confinement and no exertion for several weeks. If he manages to heal, he'll be OK as long as he never jumps, runs, or falls again. If it won't heal, we're looking at hip surgery. Either way, he is now a geriatric dog who will get regular joint supplements and pain meds. Just yesterday, he was running freely in the yard and trotting off on daily long walks.
Rosie isn't sure what to make of it.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Lorna's Afghan



I finished my friend's little boy's Christmasy hat (basic green & red striped toboggan), the vest is done, the round cape-ish sort of thing is almost done, sooooo--- gotta start something else! When I was in Seattle I picked up two skeins of Lorna's Laces painted worsted, and I had a hank of Cascase 220 Navy. I thought long and hard and decided that heavily variegated yarns just aren't going to look cool on my ample body, and I do really need to make a new afghan or three for the livingroom and den [we crank the heat down in winter.] And Lorna will make a lovely afghan. I worked out something in Old Shale, and we'll see how it looks; you can absolutely count on my having bunged up the math at some point so I'll have to fudge an increase or decrease, but it's an afghan, it's huge, no one will notice (I say that a lot.)



I'm also finishing a few strange objects that were, I guess, learning projects-- like this heap of brown stuff, which is actually a nice piece of lacework but a very strange shape. I dug out the ball of Silk Garden I had stuffed in the back of my stash (see post about hating Noro below) and I'm trying to stir them together. I promise a photo, no matter how weird, when done.



Phil has a house project this week, so I'll be baking & making soup to keep him fueled. Chicken chili, I think, and tortellini soup another night, and a date-nut cake of some sort-- Fall is in the air.

Monday, October 6, 2008

The Moon of Tiny Acorns

You know how some cultures have a Moon of Frost or a Hunter's Moon? We are currently ending the Moon of Tiny Sharp Acorns That Hurt Your Feet and entering the Moon of Bombardment. This has to do with the dozen or so huge oak trees in the back yard and the fact that they sort of loom over the house and deck. If you sit out there quietly minding your own business, so the squirrels lose their anxiety about humans, you can gradually hear an ascending cascade of plink, plop, bonk, poing, etc as acorn caps, chewed hulls, and reject acorns hit the roof, gutters, deck, and one's own person. The red oak nuts come first, which are small and sharp, meaning that we have to start wearing slippers to go get the mail or let the dogs out. Later on the bombardment-- large white oak acorns-- starts and you can lie awake at night listening to them hit the roof [BONK] and roll down [rattlerattlerattle] into the gutters [poinngg]. This is sort of soothing, actually, at about 3:00AM.
In November, of course, we have the Buried-Up-to-Your-Neck-in-Leaves Moon.
At Monday Morning Knit, we all agreed we were knitting more than ever during the presidential campaign to keep our cool and avoid having to pay too much attention to political ads. The whole thing has gotten so strident, that in combination with the approach of fall and the dire financial news, I expect yarn sales to hit a new high. I know knitting helps my blood pressure, and I need it now! The timeless nature of it helps, as long as the realization that I am at least making something useful, even if I cannot do anything to control the winds of politics and the economy.
Perhaps we should advocate knitting at political rallies. Did you see the shot of Barack Obama holding a knitter's sock-in-progress on the Yarn Harlot's blog? Just great.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Grandbaby Fix


So typical, I don't blog for three weeks and then twice in one day. I resolve to Be A Better Person, OK? Just back from a week in Seattle with daughter, son-in-law, and Cate-- world's most stupendous baby (as all grandchildren are.) Can't really call her a baby anymore, at 15 months she is running around and has about a 20 word vocabulary. All birds are ducks, all four legged creatures are pup-pups, and all plants are flowers ("fows".) It beats me how she can categorize stuff so well. She extrapolates from ducks in a lake to sparrows in the yard and crows flying overhead, and somehow knows they all go together. Hey, I'm impressed.

The weather was glorious, mountains visible all week -- Rainier, Baker, and the Olympics. We took the ferry to Bainbridge one day and visited an LYS, where I succumbed to two skeins of Lorna's Laces worsted. They had Malabrigo, they had cashmere, they had... a very well heeled clientele, I think. Capped off the week with a visit to Vivace, the very best coffee in the land, where I got two pounds of beans to smuggle back in my suitcase.

Knitted all the way there and back on a lace scarf and a stash eating cape, which just goes around and around and around, so it's excellent for the plane. We'll be back, hopefully, in December.

My first night back home I watched the VP debate for a few minutes, then I couldn't take it any longer [I was expecting Sarah to start popping her gum any minute] so I read the debate transcript on CNN, which is really a good way to go as you get to digest what is being said.

Phil's back from DC today, and we're making meatloaf and apple crisp for supper since it is blessedly cool at last.

Finito!



I have actually finished a garment that is NOT a hat or scarf and that fits, and is wearable, and has gotten a few compliments! The mitered vest, with a few mods--- instead of knitting in a buttonhole, I sewed on a loop after it was done; I made the collar a bit shorter, and the vest itself a bit shorter, than the pattern. Because of the "open" nature of the yarn, I also crocheted a stabilizing line along the collar-to-body join and around the armholes, to prevent too much stretching. When I soaked it, I squished most of the water out with towels and then threw it into the dryer by itself, on low, to see if it would felt just a wee bit. In hindsight that was a horrible gamble, but... It came out just right, the drying made the fabric just a little firmer and denser, and stronger, without really shrinking it. On the downside, it also bloomed like crazy, which makes me look like a fuzzy bear wearing it. As soon as I had the button on, I wore it to the LYS on the pretext of buying yarn, to show it off. There are always a number of ladies knitting and hanging out there, and the response was totally gratifying; what was the yarn, what was the pattern, etc. etc.


Now I'm finishing up a capelet based on Paris Loop in a group of yarns (stash-eater), and a hat for a friend's little boy, and I still have those fingerless gloves for Andrea to do. The wonderfulness of knitting, that you never, ever run out of projects!