Friday, May 22, 2009

No! Oh no!

Remember those pretty, white socks I was making as a Mother's Day gift? Well, here they are this evening.



I can't believe it! I've been knitting even longer than I've been raising Pembrokes, and I started with Pems in 1980. I've never had this happen before. Not even any of my cats have been so bad. A little, red dog whose registered name is Kantishna Remember My Name, and whose call name starts with "F" and ends with "e" and has the letters "a" and "m" in the middle, did this damage. I still can't believe it! What a naughty dog.


I realized after I made my last blog post that the socks I was knitting were not the Drooping Elm socks, but rather, the Swirling Lace Anklets. I actually paid money for this pattern - four bucks! The pattern is totally annihilated. I wonder if Elann would send me another? I mean, honest, my dog ate it! She ate my only set of size 1 dpns too. Argh!

The yarn, Peruvian Baby Cashmere, which I love by the way, is completely useless. It's so full of dog saliva it cannot be saved. I still have 2 more balls in off white but I don't have the heart to start over. I think I'll buy my mother an expensive bottle of bourbon instead. She'll like that and I could use a drink myself.

Now I am hoping Fame will pass the size one dpns she ate. I picked up pieces of chewed bamboo but not nearly enough to put together 4 dpns. Fingers and toes crossed, prayers said, candles lit, incense burning before Buddha, whatever it takes to prevent major surgery for Fame over the weekend.

Gee, I still can't believe this!



A little dog who ate her supper in jail tonight

Monday, May 18, 2009

Springtime

I've been absent from my blog (and yours too!) for a bit. Busy with job work, springtime yard and house work, agility trials (definitely not work), and having to travel for work. Ugh to the traveling. It's not that I object to traveling so much as I objected to the reason for my latest trip, and it's not like there's a lot new to see in Silicon Valley. It is what it is. Though I will say there seemed to be less traffic and far more office space for lease then my last visit to the Mecca Of High Tech. A not so good sign of the times I'm afraid.

While I was gone I left my numerous dogs in the very capable hands of Heidi, who did the most amazing job. She not only took great care of the dogs, and Percy, but left me a nice paragraph or two on each day describing who got their required meds, if Percy was in or out, who had loose stool, who didn't eat all their food, but she also left many great pictures of the dogs. My dogs not only survived without me, they also seemed to have a great time while I was gone. If you're in the area and looking for a dog sitter, I highly recommend Heidi. And I don't do that lightly or often.

Knitting

I do have a new finished object. It's the baby blanket I have been knitting for my nephew's new son. I think it turned out quite nice. This blanket was very simple and quick to knit. This is the Eyelet Squares Blanket from Vogue Knitting On The Go Baby Blankets Two. This is a reverse stockinette pattern so here's the wrong side of baby blanket:



And this is the "right" side:



I think either way looks just as nice, an important aspect for a baby blanket if you ask me.

The blanket was knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I enjoyed working with this yarn as much as I did not enjoy working with the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for my Amelia sweater.

Here's another picture of Amelia, all block and already worn once or twice.



My current project is a pair of Dropping Elm socks for my mom for Mother's Day. Yes, I know Mother's Day was a bit ago. My gift is late, what can I say. Worse yet, this is not the second sock, this is only the first sock. I have some catching up to do.



Dogs

I think I last showed a picture of Dusty after his neuter surgery. Well, Dusty managed to pull his stitches out not once, not twice, but three times! It took forever for his incision to heal. I guess he let me know what he thought about being neutered. Here is Dusty with the huge E-collar he wore for almost three weeks. He was not too happy about it, then again, I was not too happy about the 3 extra trips to the vet - nor the three extra vet bills.



I'm happy to say Dusty is all healed now and running in agility again. He's also frozen for posterity too. I love science. I now have the best of both worlds, all neutered males in my house and their sperm in the bank for future use. Life is good.

Percy

Last fall I hired a tree company to do a bunch of clean up around here. It really needed to be done but I was worried my birds might not return to nest this spring as they have in the past. All those old, storm blown trees in the fence rows and those weedy trees along the driveway might not look too pretty but they make excellent bird habitat. I'm happy to report I have an abundance of birds again this spring. Grosbeaks, orioles, larks, warblers, blue birds, they're all here.

The blue birds are not in the nesting boxes I have set out for them, but they are all over my yard each day, perching on the agility equipment before they swoop down to catch their meals. Since they are not in their boxes, I decide I could let Percy continue to be an indoor/outdoor cat. That is, until I found a dead Indigo Bunting this morning. I'm not sure Percy killed it, in his defense I will say Percy eats his prey and this bird was not mutilated. Still, I decided Percy will stay in the house now until mid-July. It's torture for him and torture for me too. He howls and whines and scratches to get out. It's close to intolerable for me to listen to him. Here is Percy finally catching a nap in his favorite old bed in the basement. It's not a very good picture but the sound of the camera was starting to wake him and I was not ready for that, I needed a few more minutes of peace and quiet. It will be a long 6-8 weeks for Percy and me. Wish us luck!

Labels: , , , , ,