Tag Archive | dogs

Pupdate: Duncan

Do you remember that I adopted a new dog?? Well, I know you’re probably itching for an update (haha probably not but I’m going to blab about him anyway) so here goes: he’s awesome!

Grace, Duncan, Jack

I mean, he’s also kind of a butthead at times (he likes to push the other dogs out of the way to get attention) but he balances it out pretty well. He loves attention, loves pets and belly rubs, loves to flop on top of me when I go to bed at night and snore away. He doesn’t chew things up (although he did try to bite my Wonder Woman shawl while I was working on it last weekend. We had a serious conversation after that incident. I think he understood the gravity of the situation and it has not happened again).He loves to play fetch, is the only dog to play with a ball, and he gets my dignified lazy pup Jack out roughhousing and wrestling. And when Jack is tired of it, Duncan moves on to Grace, who is delighted to have someone who will run around and around and around the back yard with her. As I mentioned before, he’s had a bit of a potty issue, leaving us a puddle when we’re gone all day at work/school. I really don’t want to kennel him for a variety of reasons, so we’ve been working with it and hoping it’s partly because he’s adjusting to living with us and partly because he is still a little young. We’ve had a few dry days, so I’m encouraged that we’re at least moving in the right direction. And I am encouraged for another reason too. When we adopted him, he had a small wart on his muzzle, and they said they hadn’t tried to remove it because he was recovering from kennel cough. The wart kept growing, and tiny ones popped up around it, and he had this really gross, bulbous growth. It didn’t seem to bother him at all, but then the more he played with the other dogs, and the bigger it got, it started getting…slightly injured. We took him to the vet and found out he has papilloma virus, similar to what humans get, but the dog version can’t be passed to humans. It’s apparently more common in young dogs, often regresses on his own, and surgery wasn’t really recommended. Okay, fine, we could wait it out. Well, the dogs kept playing, and the wart got injured again, and looked really red and painful, even though he was acting fine. Back to the vet, who said they could remove the warts, but it wasn’t hurting anything as it was. Okay, fine, we’ll give it a few more days and see what happens. That was about a week ago, and it’s gotten so much better! The main wart is much smaller, the tiny ones are almost gone, and the one on his paw is much smaller! I hate to be superficial, but he really is so much cuter without a large wart on the side of his face. And I am loving having three dogs. Yeah, we get more dirt and dog hair on the floors. Yeah, we’re spending more on food. But every day I come home to these three happy pups and my stress disappears. We sit out in the backyard and I love to watch them frolic. I come out of the bathroom and there are three smiling doggos waiting for me. (Yeah, that one’s a little weird, but still cute.) They’re noisy and messy and there’s always at least one dog underfoot…and I love it.

But three is my limit, I’m pretty sure.

Not a Good Day

Sep27

Today didn’t start out so great. I snoozed a bit too long and got up to a puddle outside the bedroom door (Duncan isn’t great about going very long stretches without a potty break). I confess I cursed a bit as I let the dogs out.

Then when I came down for breakfast, I spotted a knitting needle on the floor. A thin size 1 DPN that should have been in a zipped project bag holding a sock WIP. Oh, that bag? Yeah, it was on the floor, says the husband. Sure enough, the bag had suspicious dog hair on it. I unzipped it and pulled out the sock, and discovered that the rogue needle had been on live stitches. This bag was my Yarn Pop bag, the one with the handy grommet in the side you can pull the yarn through. Apparently, you can also pull a needle through.

I got the stitches back on a needle, a different needle because the first had a splinter and few tiny tooth marks, and it seems to be fine. But OMG this dog. I know, I know. It was my idea, and I found this dog, and blah blah blah. I had clearly forgotten what it’s like to have a young dog in the house, and we got really spoiled with the first two dogs, who never had accidents in the house even at under a year old. So it’s a new problem for us to deal with. Like I said, not so great.

So in the hopes of turning that frown upside down, let’s look at yarn, shall we? I have marvelous friends who give me marvelous yarn. First up is my birthday yarn from a couple of work friends. It’s Madelinetosh Euro Sock in the color Daenerys. I think it might grow up to be a Miso shawl, a simple, versatile staple for my wardrobe.

Second, I have a new skein from an indie dyer, Canon Hand Dyes, in Portland. This was a gift from another friend at work, a thank-you for covering while she was on vacation. The yarn is Oscar Sparkle Fingering and the color is called Isobel Crawley (Downton Abbey inspired, as I’m sure some of you could guess). Isn’t it beautiful? I do love sparkly things, especially sparkly purple things! I haven’t decided yet what it wants to be, but I’m pretty sure it will be another shawl/scarf, something I can pet and admire while I wear it.

There. I feel better now, don’t you? I mean, I’d feel even better if I was at home playing with my new yarn, but we can’t have it all, I suppose. Here’s hoping your day is brighter than mine has been!

More birthday fun

Sep16

One last birthday photo, because I can’t not share the super awesome cake one of my coworkers made. It was a chocolate cake covered in shiny purple glaze!! It was gorgeous.

fullsizeoutput_d0e

Okay, wait, one more. Because a couple of other awesome coworkers gave me some beautiful knitting needles that look like magic wands!! (Again, purple.)

They gave me yarn too (Madelinetosh! HELLO!), but it hasn’t come yet. Seriously, do I have the best coworkers or what?? Another one gave me delicious chocolates, but those didn’t last long enough for a photo!

I’ve also had some good knitting time this week and I’ve cast on two new shawls. I was finally able to get yarn to make the Wonder Woman wrap, hooray!

fullsizeoutput_d0d

I chose Malabrigo Sock yarn in Ravelry Red and Ochre. I’ve cast on and done the easy first section, and am loving it so far. Now I need to move on to the scary part, which has wrap & turn short rows, which I’ve never done before. It’ll be fine, though. Fine. Just fine.

Did you notice? I’m using Wonder Woman stitch markers too! Love them!

And this morning, I cast on for the Rainbow Warrior by Casapinka. I’ve been wanting to make this shawl for ages, but I wanted to do it with the Miss Babs yarn, just like the original, and I could never bring myself to order the yarn. Thanks to birthday money, I was finally able to place the order. And along with an adorable little mini-skein and three stitch markers, I got two skeins of Yummy 2-play, one in Perfectly Wreckless and one in Thunderstorm.

I’m pretty sure this will be a quick, fun knit. I’m already loving it and can’t wait to go back! How do I choose which awesome shawl to work on??

fullsizeoutput_d0c

Plus I want to cast on more things. Really I just want to cast on ALL the things right now. But hopefully I can contain myself to two shawls at a time. More might be overwhelming!

Duncan is settling in nicely. He’s feeling more comfortable, which is mostly good. He’s not quite as mellow and easy-going as he was the first couple of days. In fact, he can be rather ornery and mischievous, both with us and the other dogs. His appetite also grew noticeably, and he’s much more playful and spunky that I thought at first. He’s making the other two play much more than they’re used to, so at least they’re getting worn out. I’m having a marvelous time watching them all interact, and I’m so glad I was able to convince the husband to add just one more dog to the pack.

fullsizeoutput_d12

Happy weekend, friends!

Birthday Fun

Sep10

I love birthdays, don’t you? You get to celebrate with people you love, and eat yummy food, and sometimes you get fun presents too! I celebrated a few days early this weekend with my family and enjoyed being around three little kids again. (I also enjoyed it when they left and my house was quiet again, haha!) We grilled burgers and drank margaritas and ate cake and played with puppers and it was overall a perfectly lovely party. Duncan was quite a gentleman: quiet, well-behaved, and tolerant of the kids’ attention. Grace was the naughty one, stealing a bun from a plate left too close to the edge of the table! As for the presents, I consider myself a lucky girl:

The pens are Pilot Metropolitan Pop fountain pens and they’re super cute and super fun to write with. The yarn is CASHMERE, friends. Yes, CASHMERE. I will probably cast on with it today simply because I can’t wait to knit with cashmere. And I finally got some of the color-coded cords, which I’ve been coveting for ages. Hooray, lucky me!

It’s been a nice weekend with the new pupper too. Duncan is settling in wonderfully. All three dogs get along and play well together. Duncan is still more selfish about getting attention, but the other two are sharing nicely. He loves to cuddle, loves the couches, and really loves beds.

fullsizeoutput_cfb

So I consider myself pretty lucky with that too. In fact, Duncan might be the best present of all!

Rescuing Duncan

Sep8

Meet our new furry friend, Duncan!

fullsizeoutput_cf2

He’s a shepherd mix, about 15 months old and 78 pounds (or so they said. He doesn’t seem that heavy, but he is solid). We met several dogs over the last week or so, trying to find our newest pupper, and none of the were just right. Duncan was a great mix of cuteness, playfulness, and respectfulness. They all three seem to get along well, and Duncan backs off every time one of the others corrects him, which is a great sign. He runs around the yard with Grace, which she loves, and he roughhouses with Jack, so I think this might work out well. (Fingers crossed!) He doesn’t have great manners all the time so we’ll be working on that, but seems willing to learn.

fullsizeoutput_cf4

Duncan was adopted from the Great Plains SPCA, and they were super helpful in our search. But in the KC metro area, you can also find lots of furry friends at Wayside Waifs and KC Pet Project. I’m a big advocate of Adopt, Don’t Shop!

There has been a bit of knitting here and there too. I finished the set I’m donating to a silent auction fundraiser and I think it turned out pretty cute.

I used the visual element of the Twinkly Lights cowl and combined it with the Zig Zag Chevron hat and the 75 Yard Malabrigo Mitts. Hopefully someone likes it enough to bid on it!

Happy Friday, friends!

Silly Selfies and FOs

Sep10

I have some FOs to share, and apparently I like to take silly photos of myself wearing them. Here’s the Cruella Cowl, a beauty in black and white. The pattern is Darn Knit Kinetic Cowl and it’s the fastest cowl I’ve ever made. In case you don’t recognize it, the yarn is my vacation Berroco Brio.

And then we have the Squarshy Hat, finished tonight, which I adore. I could have added another half-inch to the body, but it’s just fine as is.This is also vacation yarn, the Malabrigo Mecha.

Lastly, we have Fractal Danger, completed at last! But no silly selfies with this one, sorry. This was an interesting knit with unusual shaping, and was also my first experience with short rows. They’re not really my favorite. Kind of fiddly, turning so often and making sure your stitches stay on the needles and all that jazz. They slowed down my rhythm, and anything that does that is not my favorite. Still, I like this a lot, and I do think the shape makes it wonderfully wearable. I just need to get it blocked!

Next on my needles: Silverleaf with Malabrigo Arroyo! Can’t wait to get going on that one; I’ve been itching to knit it since it was released.

It’s been a while since I shared some puppy photos, hasn’t it? Grace is as much a love bug as ever, giving as many kisses as we’ll allow.

And Jack, silly cute Jack, he forgave me for boarding him after a day and went back to his charming self, always asking for belly rubs no matter where we’re sitting.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Vacation Knitting

Sep6

Whew. I’m home from a long weekend vacation and I’m pooped. I’m so glad I decided to take today off; I’ve got a quiet day home alone to catch up on puppy cuddles, laundry, and yarn stuff.

So first: the puppies. We had to board them while we were gone and we missed them terribly. I picked them up first thing this morning and Grace was super excited to see me, but my good pupper Jack didn’t want to come see me. He kept backing away and barking. The nice lady said it was because of the smells, but I think he was just too freaked out. Thankfully, when Grace ran over and jumped on me, Jack came to his senses and came to get his cuddles. We had a crazy hour or so once we got home but now they’re both exhausted and sleeping, one on the back of the couch behind me, one at my feet. Life is good: puppies are home.

Now, YARN!! I went to two yarn stores. The first, Knitorious, was fantastic: big, well-organized, great selection of brands and colors, friendly without being pushy or overbearing. The girl went in with me and even she was so caught up in the yarn-love that she bought herself a skein. What did I get? Let’s see:

Malabrigo Mechita in this beautiful rainbow color. I’m thinking Hitchhiker Beyond.

More Malabrigo, Mecha this time. Not sure, but maybe fingerless gloves to keep at work.

Brio!! I love this yarn and hadn’t seen this black and white version before. This is going to become a Darn Knit Kinetic Cowl for me!

This might be my favorite. Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Black Velvet. Sock Head hat, here I come!

The second yarn store I won’t name because it was not good. At all. Very small. It had a ton of empty shelves and the selection was really limited. The acrylic section was the biggest and was the only yarn with multiple color ways and multiple skeins of any color. The “good” yarns were maybe two or three different brands, which I wasn’t familiar with, but they were pretty enough. But there were just a few skeins of each, one of each colorway. I found one skein I liked but it wasn’t priced. Nothing was priced. There were no signs on the shelves. Finally I found price lists on the top of the shelving unit; my yarn wasn’t on there. I asked the woman working and she showed me the sheet. I looked again, and said, “I’m sorry, I just don’t see it on here.” My yarn wasn’t on there so she had to look up the price. Maybe it’s not a huge deal, but it is one of my pet peeves at yarn stores. I like to be able to see how much the yarn is without asking all the time. I like it when the skeins are priced but I get that takes a lot of time, so I’m okay with labels on shelves. But if you make it too hard for me to find the price, I’m going to give up because it’s awkward for me. Anyway, I won’t recommend that store and I wouldn’t go back. Here’s the one skein I bought, because purple.

It’s Black Bunny Fibers and it’s labeled Mayfair. The label says DK but it looks more like worsted to me. It hasn’t told me what it wants to be yet so I’m pondering.

I got plenty of knitting done too, thanks to a nice husband who did all the driving, and have three FOs to show you!

Fern Lace cowl with Nerd Girl Yarns Luscious. It’s a silk/merino blend and SO soft.

Pisky hat! Love this one. I bought Cascade 220 Superwash from the DK section at my LYS but Ravelry calls it a worsted. So I went down a needle size and it’s wearable, but a little bigger than I’d like. I’d love to make this pattern again with a true DK. It was so fun to knit and it’s so cute.

This one’s a donation for a silent auction. I’ve got matching fingerless gloves to pair it with. It’s a simple beanie recipe; you can see the Ravelry project page here.

So yeah, I had such a nice long weekend full of yarn and bookstores and fun things and family, and today I’m going to wind yarn and cast on new projects for the work days ahead of me. And cuddle with puppies.

Henry’s Hat: Take Two

Aug18

Okay, so I re-knit Henry’s Hat in the smaller size, and it really is darn cute.

But it’s still nowhere near the size it’s supposed to be.

FullSizeRender

This *might* be doable for my nephew, but it’ll still be kind of big. It was supposed to be for Christmas, but I’m thinking I need to try it on him earlier than that so I can make a smaller one if needed. And in the meantime, I’ve started another one on smaller needles, and we’ll see how that turns out.

In other news, today was the first day of school and I forced my kids to take first day photos and I couldn’t believe how grown up they are.

And just for fun, here’s a couple of puppy photos.

This is Jack waiting for the girl to get home from work last night. He does love his people.

And here’s my cuddle bug, Grace. She loves to lay on the back of the couch behind my head so she can reach over and sniff my hair and ear.

Hope your week is going well!

Three WIPs

Aug7

The new job is going well, and I’m catching on quickly to most things. I think the biggest hurdle has been the Spanish accent of one of my bosses. I struggle a bit with accents, so I’m really hoping that with time, I’ll get more used to it and it’ll be easier. As it is, I’ve had a couple of scary moments where I asked “What?” once and didn’t want to ask again, and then had to ask someone else for help later. Thankfully, he’s a very nice man, so he’d probably be patient with me too. It’s just hard to admit you can’t understand someone, isn’t it?

I’m enjoying bolstering the knitting group at work too. I knit every day, and one day at the cafe, one woman sat with our group because of my knitting. She used to knit, keeps projects handy, but struggles to find time. Of course I told her about the knitting group, so I’m hoping to see her there soon. I go to every lunch meeting I can, and I’ve got the other AA who started with me knitting too. She learned the knit stitch as a child, and I donated a pair of needles she could try again and see if she liked it. She made a mug cozy in about a day, and is now working on a chevron baby blanket! There’s one other woman there who’s a dedicated crocheter/knitter, so she’s always got her yarn too, and we can talk about stash and what to do with leftover yarn and weaving in ends and understand each other perfectly.

But despite my daily lunchtime knitting, I haven’t finished a project in a while. Instead, I thought I’d share what I’ve been working on. I’ve got three biggish WIPs that are moving slowly. First is my KC Royals Crackerjack scarf. I got bored with it a while back and set it aside, but recently realized it makes great lunch break knitting so I made note of all the wins and losses for the last two months (yeah, I neglected it that long) and within a few days I got all caught up. I really like the random look to it, especially if I don’t think about the fact that the big blocks of white and gold mean they lost a lot.

My Saroyan is progressing nicely too. I’m loving the pattern and the yarn. (How could you not love a hot pink cashmere blend yarn?)

I just started the second skein last night while watching the Olympics, and I can see a definite difference in color. But it’ll be the middle of the scarf and at the back of my neck when I wear it, so I’m trying to let it go.

I also have Fractal Danger on my needles, in my newest Manos del Uruguay Alegria.

This is a Martina Behm pattern, so it’s full of delicious garter stitch. This was my lunch break knitting this week, but I had to keep track of the rows just enough that it was hard to eat and chat at the same time, so I think I’ll cast on for a new hat for this week. I might do Yoda hats, since those are strong sellers on Etsy and I can almost make them without any thought at all.

Yesterday, the husband needed to donate something to the Habitat ReStore, which just *happens* to be next door to a lovely big LYS, so I decided I’d ride along. It’s somehow appropriate, given the location of the Olympics, that I came home with some new Malabrigo Rios.

I keep buying new yarn despite having less knitting time than before. This might be a problem soon.

On the way home, we saw this:

Yep, a little chihuahua in a cart on the back of a scooter. I love it.

Now, I’m going to spend the rest of my Sunday baking, knitting, and watching the Olympics. The real question is whether I make myself work out before doing the fun stuff. (I KNOW. Don’t tell me. I KNOW I should. But I don’t WANT to.)

Enjoy your Sunday, friends!

A wee bit of purple

Jul16

Where did my knitting time go?? I think my body is still adjusting to this new schedule, because by the time I’m home from work and done with dinner, I’m exhausted. I knit a few rows and my eyes are drooping, and I’m usually in bed with lights out by 10. I got so spoiled the last few years that my body is struggling with this new “wake up at 5:30 in the morning” thing. As a result, I have very little knitting to show off this week. I’ve been working on the Secret Beach Scarf and I made it through the second contrasting color and onto the third. And it’s my favorite: the purple!

I’m on the homestretch now, just need to get the purple section to 18″ and then it’ll be DONE and I can cast on something new with no guilt.

I did get to meet the knitting group at work and they seem to be a lovely group of people, very welcoming and funny and irreverent, as the best people are. They meet twice a week over lunch break so I should start getting a little more knitting time. Yesterday I took lunch out onto the patio and had some solo knitting time. It was lovely to have that little respite in the middle of the day.

The other thing I’ve been doing is reading. Lots of my favorite authors have new books out, and I’ve finished Elin Hilderbrand’s Here’s to Us and Emily Giffin’s First Comes Love and I’m almost done with Allison Winn Scotch’s In Twenty Years. Coming up I have Sarah Pekkanen’s new book, but first I want to re-read Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell before the first book club meeting. (Haha, I’ve never been in a book club before, so this will be interesting!)

The puppies are not a fan of my new schedule, and are so so excited to see me when I get home. My first job is always to sit down and cuddle with them for a while, otherwise they just follow me around and jump on me.

That’s it, that’s my week. Hopefully next week I’ll have more knitting to include!