The Scottish Lamb

Winds of Change Are A Blowin'...

Before I forget I want to tell you to watch Oprah tomorrow (Friday, Apr 4th).  Lisa Ling is doing a story on puppy mills.  I've heard it's very moving but really gets the point across so I'm anxious to see it.  Speaking of... Dan got to meet and have lunch Saturday with the woman that actually rescued Lucky from the mill in Missouri since he's there right now for a course.  He's less than an hour from the mill where Lucky was rescued.  I tried to talk him into sneaking there in the middle of the night and letting all the dogs out of the cages but, being a stickler for the law and all, he wouldn't do it.   Not that I thought for a minute that he would but it was worth a shot.  Dang it all.  I posted new pictures of Lucky a few days ago so be sure and check those out too. He's become a beautiful little dog and is sweet as can be.

I hit a snag on Lilly.  I didn't want to knit the lace edging by itself and then sew it on.  I like short cuts and I find one anyway I can.  Even if it ends up costing me more time than if I'd just done it the long way in the first place.  I want to attach it as I knit it but I can't think for the life of me how.  Me.   The woman that used to knit lace edgings onto countless shawls can't figure out how to knit it onto the edge of this sweater because of the pattern stitch in the main part.  I'm too stubborn to move on and I'm too lazy to try it out.  For the past several days I've said I was going to sit and knit on it and just couldn't pick it up out of frustration.

I've been in a weird funk.  Dan's been gone for two weeks and it's the first time he's been gone for more than a couple of days since he got back from Afghanistan.  It's thrown me out of whack.  I've been jumping from one thing to another over the last two weeks and I don't have one thing to show for it because I haven't finished any of them.  I've jumped from polymer clay to stained glass to sewing to spinning to knitting and quiting (sometimes all in one day).   I just can't seem to focus.  Dan comes home tomorrow night so I'm hoping that'll kick me back into gear.

There's other stuff going on too.  The winds of change are starting to blow for us.   Anyone know  someone hiring a really experience Federal Law Enforcement Agent?  Dan hit 20 years in the Army about three weeks ago.  We're done.  Done. Done. Done.  As in we've had it.  The move here was the clincher.    And let's face it, the pay in the civilian world is about three times what he's making now.  As you can imagine though, putting in retirement papers is still pretty scary.   He was told about a possible job in Austin with the Texas National Guard and he just found out a couple of days ago there are a lot of really great jobs in his field mostly in the Houston area.  That would be great because we'd be near his sister who I love and adore.  We'd also be near Tracy, who I'm pretty fond of even though we haven't met face to face (that'll be remedied in July)!   I've been looking at houses online just to get an idea.  If we go to Houston, we'll most likely live up north, out of the city limits, near my SIL.  The houses are HUGE (we could fit three of the one we're living in now in most of them) and the prices are very good so that's promising.  This whole process is going to take a while.  At least a year once his retirement paperwork has been approved so it's going to be a long haul.

Wow.  I guess I just needed to get all that out.  Now I'm really going to sit and knit that lace edging.  Hopefully I'll have a finished sweater to show you in a few days.

Do Not Adjust Your Monitor

Be sure to check Lucky's site.  I just posted some new pictures of him.  He's beautiful.  Inside and out.   I entered him in a contest at Bissell hoping to win some money for Lucky Star Cavalier Rescue.  Please help me spread the word.  It's for a very good cause and I think it'd be awesome if Lucky was able to give back to the group that saved his life.  Here's the link to vote for Lucky directly.

Sometimes it pays to be an Army wife.  Like this past weekend when the lights went out (twice).  Chem lights provided a cool green light so I could still knit.  Combat knitting.  It's a good thing.

I've been making a lot of progress on Lilly.  I have the back and two front pieces finished.  I'm working on the first sleeve now.  I can not wait to get to the lace hem.  The stitch forms a beautiful fabric but boy is it a lot of knitting.  It reminds me of the Trinity Stitch Cardigan I did a few years ago.  I'd show you pics but they'd be just like the ones from the last post so... moving on....

I've been trying my hand at hot dyeing in a kettle.  I'd always done the whole painted or squirted on color, wrap in plastic and steam method before.  I gotta say... the kettle is fun.  Here's some yarn I came up with:   

And some roving that I then spun up. 

Last week I bought this lens for my camera.  Holy cow.  I couldn't believe how inexpensive it was especially after I saw the results.  Here are a few shots I've taken over the last week and I was just playing around trying to get used to it.  There are a couple more on Lucky's site:

54 X 3 = A Lot Of Frogging

54.  That's how many rows I was into Lilly.  Oh.  And let me not forget to mention that I was knitting her in one piece to the underarms.  So multiply that x 3.  At... oh.... about row 25 or so I was thinking that I didn't like the way the side shaping was looking and that maybe I should just go ahead and rip it back out before I got too far.  Naaahhh... it'll be fine.  I convinced myself of this with every right side row.   You can see on the 2nd, 6th and 8th column that I'd messed up too.  And I just now spotted one on the 4th column from the right.  Dropping stitches down to fix an error in this pattern is near impossible.  Obviously I wasn't successful and by row 54 I knew I wasn't going to be happy with the finished cardigan so.....

Frog City.  I hooked it up to the ball winder and cranked away.

I cast back on but I'm going to do it in pieces so the shaping won't be so noticeable.  I'm already on row 59 of the back and it's looks SO much better.   The pattern is almost mindless now but it's an awful lot like ribbing with a backwards yarn over stuck in there now and then. I'm really glad that I went ahead and ripped it back.  This Jaeger Roma that I bought from Elann back in November is beautiful stuff.  Soft and easy to knit.

In my last post I had a little verse from a song from what I thought was a popular line dance.  I was surprised at how many people didn't catch the verse that I wrote.  I found this video of people doing it at a wedding (of course the clap your hands line isn't until the very end of the video):

Kinda like the Chicken Song.  Dumb but fun.

Poor Aggie.  I'd made some banana bran muffins (I'd share the recipe but they were horrible) on Saturday in our quest to lose weight.  Dan had one the other day and decided that the foil liner was the perfect accessory for Aggie.  Poor dog.  She wasn't amused.

Everybody Clap Ya Hands.....

Everybody Clap ya hands
Clap, clap, clap, clap your hands
Clap, clap, clap, clap your hands

Le Clapotis... she isa vera fun knit.

I wore it out to the bus stop this morning and I came back in looking like I'd wrestled with an Angora goat.  The mohair is shedding like crazy.  Anyone have any tips on that?

• Clapotis from Knitty
• Brooks Farm Duet yarn
• size 7mm needles

Boxed In

Have you seen Professor Randy Pausch's Last Lecture?!  People like this amaze me.  Where do they get their strength?  If you haven't seen it, it's very inspirational.

I refuse to believe that I'm the last person in Knitland to know about the Knit Map site so I feel it is my duty to pass it on to those that are as in the dark as I am.  I punched in my zip code and I am in a SEA of knitting shops.  I've been here for almost a year now and only knew about five of them:

Another place that I find inspiration from is Tracy at Wool Windings.  She posted about a little box she knit and felted from the Mason Dixon Knitting book.  I cast on right away.  Here's my before and after:

Then she posted about this scarf she knit.  I LOVE it.  I'm not a copy cat.  I'm not!  But I'm SO making that scarf. 

We were pounded with snow (not Kim snow, but still...) last Friday so it was a pretty lazy weekend.  I finished the Clapotis just haven't gotten a picture of it yet.

Kim Wasn't Lying!

My new "little" cousin, Nelson,  in the sweater I knit for him last month.  I think this is the last time he'll be wearing it. lol.

We went up to New Hampshire over the weekend.  Got to meet up with  Kim and hubby again for lunch and a trip to Patternworks.   What fun but I can't believe that as many times as we've met up, we don't have a picture of us together.  I'm sure it's because neither of us really like to have our picture taken but we're going to have to remedy that next time.  And she wasn't lying about the snow!  It's exactly the kind of snow I remember as a little girl up there.   There's a picture somewhere in my grandparents basement of me standing on the sidewalk in front of the house we lived in with snow piled way over my head on either side of me.  I remember my grandfather and uncles having to climb out the 2nd story window to clear the snow from the front door and the 1st story windows.   As soon as we hit Highway 16 our jaws dropped as we saw the several feet of snow get deeper and deeper.

The Texas boy got a little taste of New England life as he helped my cousin get the snow off of her roof.   This was after we'd just gone up and helped my grandfather clear off his workshop and garage.   My 82 year-old grandfather swore to us that he wasn't going to worry about the roof of the house because he'd shoveled it a few times over the last month and it didn't have the accumulation the workshop and garage did.  Yea.  When I went out to take the above picture of Dan and Muria on her roof they just pointed up the hill at my grandparents house:

See the guy in the red jacket on the roof?  That'd be my very stubborn grandfather.  See the the yellow wood in the foreground?  That'd be the fence that Joe could just step over because of the snow.

Remember this picture of Joseph that I took last Summer?  This is my grandfather's garden now:

Crazy.  Just crazy.  I'm glad we won't be around when all that melts.  What a mess.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

Added a little later... you have to check out the Cavalier Judging at Westminster video. 

Aggie is the most vain dog I've ever met.  Pull the camera out and she's in front of it.  She actually came running over and put her face in the shot.  Yeesh.

So yesterday I was so excited about Tracy's (Wool Windings) little felted box that I cast one on of my own.  I found some Noro left over from these and some Lopi Lite left over from Hues in Horizontal and cast on with a strand of each.  I was cocky and cast on the largest size. I  wasn't even through the first side and realized there's no way I had enough of the green Lopi so I ripped it all out and started over. I  crossed my fingers and cast on the smallest size.  I knew it was gonna be close but this is ridiculous.  Six stitches left to cast off and see the little inch of green yarn left.  I will not be defeated.  I'll just take a little from one of the cast on ends.  See?  There's plenty here:

We're driving up to NH this tomorrow so I'll have to finish it when I get back.  I'll post a picture then.  Thanks for the inspiration, Tracy! 

I've been working on the Clapotis (finally) and I needed a little change for a bit so the box was perfect.

I'm using Brooks Farm Duet that I bought at Rhinebeck.  I don't know the color name because it's not listed on the labels.  LOVE this stuff.  I do wish that I'd alternated each couple of rows with each ball of yarn because I'm not crazy about the way it's pooling.  I'm half tempted to start over again.  I'd mentioned on the Elann chat site that this one's been on my to-do list for a long time and wham-bam! Joan put up a KAL blog for it.  So come join us for the Fashionably Late in '08 Clapotis KAL.

I've also been working on my photography.   Marie actually noticed and left me a nice comment asking me about it.  I've been following along with this course that's ongoing online.  Yes, folks, you *can* take your camera off of Auto!!  This coming from a professional photographer's daughter who's had an awesome camera for a couple of years now.  The only thing I dared to do was take a picture without the flash.  Now I actually know how to METER it!  Can you imagine?  The freedom of it all is mind boggling.  Oh how I'd listened to my father when he tried to teach me about f-stops and composition.  He even made me take photography in HS but let's face it...  that was a couple of years ago... ehem... so I remember zilch.  Since Aggie was so obliging and right there anyway I took these of her this morning.

And here's what I've learned.  The first shot I love.  Look at those catch lights!  I'd just cleaned her eyes so I wish I would have waited until they dried and it would have been perfect.  The second shot... I should have had the focus on her nose, not her ears.  Still.... kinda cool.  And a serious improvement from the pictures I took of her a couple of years ago.

Lucky's not so easy.  He's almost afraid of the camera.  I guess I would be too if I saw a huge cyclops in my face all the time.

A virtual dozen roses to you.  No chocolate because Dan and I started Weight Watchers on Monday - tell me how stupid is to try and start losing weight Valentine's week?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Need a laugh?

Can you imagine trying to knit in this thing? If this doesn't make you laugh... well... I don't know what to say.

Back to Normal

First.  What is up with the weather?!  The tornadoes, the storms... we had a huge thunder and lightening storm last night.   In  NEW YORK!  In FEBRUARY!  The woman that fostered Lucky when I went to pick him up got a lot of damage to her roof and barn.  They said in their paper that it was a "micro-burst" not a "tornado".  Really.  Who cares what the heck the scientists call it (no offense if any scientist are reading).  Same outcome.  Lots of people hurt and lots of property damage and homes lost.  Thankfully everyone at Cathy's is okay but what a mess she has on her hands.

I spun up the wool that I dyed the other day.  It's Bluefaced Leicester that I bought at Rhinebeck.  Gorgeous stuff but I have to say I'm not sure about my spinning.  It seems a little stringy to me.  The fiber is very long and I had a hard time not spinning it too thin.  I wanted a puffy, cushy yarn but I think you have to do at least three plies to get that with BFL.  Any tidbits of advice?  It's soft but I'm not sure about the twist.  All that said, it seems much lighter in grist that I usually do so I think it'll be nice and drapey in something light.

I go through phases in spinning.  I'll go months without touching my wheel and then I'll spin like crazy for a while.  It just seems to take me forever to spin a bobbin of singles.  I know... I know... it's not  a race but c'mon!   I'd like to think it wasn't so much work for me.  It just doesn't seem to flow.  Obviously the plying goes much faster but even that I concentrate too much on the twist.  I think I think about it too much.  I'm too anal to just let it flow.  I brought up going to SOAR to Dan since it's in the Poconos this year.   I'm also looking at a dyeing class at the Mannings later this month.   Dan said he was going to give me a day at a local spa for Valentines and I told him I'd rather go to the dyeing class.  We'll see.  I could just use a little break away and I think I'd rather do that with dyes.  I can always give myself a facial in the hotel room that night. lol.

Thanks for all the well wishes and kind notes about Aggie. She was finally completely back to her old sassy self yesterday.  I don't know when I've ever been so scared as trying to get her back to the vet on Saturday.  Needless to say we'll be much more careful about the whole vaccine thing here.  I'm going to ask that they do a Titer test on both dogs.  Here's my girl all bright-eyed and bushy tailed again:

And here's Lucky happy that his Aggie is all better.  Can you believe he looked like this just five months ago?!  He's gorgeous and his personality is really coming through.  He's almost like a puppy just learning.  He gets a tad more frisky each day.  Those big brown eyes just kill me.  I'd do anything for him.

Dog Day Afternoon

I was supposed to have a Ribby finished to show you today but my weekend didn't go as planned.

Aggie had an allergic reaction to her immunizations.  Is this the saddest thing you ever saw (she's not asleep)?

Aggie's eyes were swollen all Saturday afternoon and most of yesterday from a bad allergic reaction to her vaccinations.  Friday night when we got up to to go to bed Aggie couldn't walk.  It was like she couldn't get her back end up.  I was scared to death.  She'd been fine just an hour or so before.  She'd yelped a couple of times when Dan got up off the sofa during the evening but we thought he'd caught her fur or pushed on her paw or something.  I'd given her a chicken chew that had just come in from Fosters & Smith and I thought maybe she was stopped up.  I called the Emergency vet and they told me to give her 1/2 tsp of vegetable oil and if she wasn't better in the morning to call them back or take her to our regular vet.  Of course I didn't sleep at all Friday night.  I kept waking up to check on her in between dreams of her pulling one of those little wheelie things behind her.  A little dramatic?  Maybe but I was scared and I have weird dreams when I'm upset. At 6 am I woke up to the unmistakable sound of a dog heaving.  It wasn't Aggie, it was Lucky.  Dear God.  What the heck's going on.  I turned to look for Aggie and she'd fallen off their big pillow bed under our bed and couldn't get up.  I don't know what the deal was with Lucky but he didn't produce anything and he was fine after that. 

I knew I'd never get back to sleep so I picked Aggie up and took her downstairs.  I stood her up by the back door and she was walking now but not right.  She went out and pee'd but couldn't poop.  I brought her back in and she plopped down and wouldn't get up again.  The vet finally opened at 8:30.  We packed her up in her little bag and took her in.  We had her on the floor while we were talking to the receptionist and she barked.  Dan unzipped her bag and out popped Miss Aggie like nothing was ever wrong.  Dan and I looked at each other dumbfounded and the girl behind the desk looked at us like we were nuts.

She (Aggie... not the girl behind the desk) proceeded to do a little circle dance and poop right in front of their desk.  Well. I guess that was the problem.  She had an appt. for later this week for her annual check up and shots anyway so they took care of it since we were already there.  By the time we got home in the early afternoon I was sitting down at my computer to write to Kim to let her know Aggie was fine because I'd written her when I was waiting for the vet to open and I didn't want her to worry.  In the middle of the email I heard a weird scratching noise behind me.  I looked back and Aggie's eyes were quickly swelling and she was scratching her face like crazy.  I freaked.  I called the vet and they said get her back there in a hurry.  We have a very nasty cliff-side mountain drive to get to the vet's office.  One side is a stone mountain and the other side is a cliff and the Hudson River. Let's just say it was a hairy ride (when we calmed down and were talking about it later, Dan felt bad that he didn't drive me back but we didn't want to leave the boys home alone any longer that day).  The usual half-hour drive took about 20 min... maybe a little less.  I was so afraid that the swelling would go to her throat and she'd suffocate on the way.

The vet came running out and grabbed her and assured me she'd be okay and then he whisked her in to give her a shot of steroids and benedryl.  They kept her for a couple of hours to make sure she was coming down.  She's pretty much back to normal today.  Her eyes are still a little swollen underneath.  She's not her usual playful self but she's getting there.  I swear.  Vet bills are killing us this month. 

So I'd planned on finishing my Ribby Cardi this weekend but this is how it was instead:

Instead I nursed little girl dog on my lap while Lucky stayed close by.

From now on we'll be sticking around the vet for a while after injections.  My God.  I was so scared I was going to lose her on the drive back there.  They think it was the vaccine for Lyme Disease (there are a TON of ticks here).  She's supposed to have a booster in three weeks when she goes in for her dental.  Needless to say I'm really worried about it.  The vet said that it could have been one of the other injections even though she'd had them all before but maybe by a different manufacturer.