Here's something I haven't seen in a long time

Yup...Wilbur's butt-end when we're out on our walks.  For months now, as we've fought through his tummy problems, his walks were usually short, and he was usually at my side or lagging along behind me.  So nice to see him trotting out ahead again.  You can't see it from the picture, but he has that border collie bounce in his step again!

Saturday was a glorious day, and there were many lovely things to be seen in our little neighborhood.

Sadly, the only thing that is found in our yard is that lonely little red tulip.  Oh, we once had lilacs, but the city came through last year and dug them out when they replaced the sewer lines.  So, I have to walk about a block to bury my face in gorgeous, intoxicating lilacs.  Our yard is a major reclamation project.  Not a pretty sight...

Oh, here's something else we saw a lot of:

Yup...Wilbur checking his pee-mail.

Happy day - so glad it's spring!!!

They're laughing at me, you know...

My mother and my grandmothers, those goddesses of all things involving fabric, thread or fiber...they're having a good long chuckle right now.  Can't you hear them????  Listen!!! 

Ok...maybe not, but it wouldn't surprise me.  I think they're playing a colossal cosmic trick on me from beyond the grave.  Why else would every button I choose from the family button box - chosen to honor all of them, mind you - have exactly ONE less button than I need for whatever project I'm working on???  Just look at this:

This is payback for all those years I spent playing army with the guys, chasing down birds and frogs and snakes and bringing them home instead of sitting quietly by the sides of the needlewomen in my life and learning my craft from them.  I am cursed to always have one less button than what I need!

I could just go out and buy buttons, it's true...but I really like to use the buttons handed down to me as much as I can.  And I really had some great button ideas for this project, Mavis Adams' Button-Up Neck Warmer.  In the end, though I couldn't use any of the cool green buttons I wanted, I was able to settle on these...and my quickie Grapevine neck warmer was a success

In other knitterly news, I spent some time on the Luna Moth Shawl and finally got out of that "make me constantly crave mac & cheese orange" shade and into true yellow, soon to be green.  It's hard to see the color change right now, but once I get a little ways into the green, I'll post a pic of my progress.

I also started knitting on the Citron Shawl, and I'm lovin' it!!  I decided to use that Crystal Palace Mini Mochi I had lying around.  Yes...that yarn I hated so much after knitting the Pretty Thing cowl with it.  May I change my mind???  On #7 needles and using the Citron Shawl pattern, the Mini Mochi is an absolute dream!!  I'm already planning two other Citrons using some other colorways of Mini Mochi - I am in love!!!

Tomorrow...or if I have time today...I'll work a little more on Brandywine and try to get my first sock finished.  Now it's off to eat an early dinner, take Wilbur for a walk, then Harmony Project rehearsal (and I really need to tell you about THAT!).  Happy knitting, happy spring!

Visual Aids

Last week, I got together with my FB friend, Cindy, and attempted to show her how to knit Frankie Brown's Ten Stitch Blanket.  This is a really easy, straightforward pattern once you understand what you're doing.  It took me a whole afternoon to understand what I was doing, and I've been zipping slowly along ever since (slowly because I decided to double the size of the blanket - I actually think I'm knitting a tent...or a cover for the house).

The most confusing thing about this pattern for me was wrapping the stitches.  And when I started to show Cindy how to do this, it was also the most confusing thing for her.  There's something just inherently intimidating about all those "wyifs" and "ybs" until you realize that - DOH! - all you're doing is wrapping the yarn around a stitch, turning your work and going back.  Let me tell you, when that dawned on me, it was a headslapping revelation!  This is a step that's really easy to do...and really hard to explain.  I know...I tried to re-explain for Cindy.

After we had a good laugh and decided to schedule another lesson, I went home and tried to figure out the best way to make this easier.  I figured it would help to break down the instructions into individual rows.  And then I got the nifty idea of creating visual aids -  little swatches to show Cindy what her work should look like.  Whaddya think?

I used the peach yarn to represent work that had already been done, and the green to show the next step.  The little stitch marker is to show where she should pick up the stitches when she starts working around .  All in all, a fun way to spend a Wednesday afternoon.

And since Wednesday was also WIP/UFO Day, I will report in that I've completed another triangle on the Jiffy Scarf (now 50% complete) and 3/4 of another wedge of the Christmas Tree Skirt (about 60% complete).

It's cold again here in Ohio.  I'm glad I finished Shalom so quickly, since I'll have several days of chances to enjoy it.  However, knitting Shalom gave me the "dreaded wool thumb" syndrome.  Ugh...  How to describe this politely (and NO...I'm NOT posting a picture!)...when I knit with worsted weight or heavier wool, regardless of how soft it is...the skin peels off the top of my right thumb.  Ick...ouch...  I've been limping along with my knitting while wearing a bandaid, which is fine for that Jiffy scarf and tree skirt,  but lace knitting is pretty much out of the question.  I did four rows of Evenstar yesterday and stopped because the yarn kept getting snagged.

I'll also continue to brag about my success in getting Wilbur's tummy troubles under control.  Limiting his availability of water to 100-150ml every couple hours has eliminated the urps and, as a result of that, his energy level has returned.  See?  Is this a dynamo of doggieboy energy or what?

Just kidding...he's having his "after breakfast nap" right now.  Should perk up in, oh, about an hour...

The weekend is shaping up to be fun!  I'm volunteering at the Mid-Ohio Food Bank in the morning, then we're meeting a friend (Hi, Mark!) tomorrow night to take in a Columbus Clippers game.  Woo-hooooo!  Baseball!  Life is good!

What are your plans for the weekend?

So I can't come up with a catchy title today...

that doesn't mean I don't have anything to write about, right?  I should be upstairs, deep cleaning the bedroom...but I'm procrastinating.  I do have a couple things to share, after all.

Yesterday, I did some serious sock knitting on the Butterfly Garden socks.  A couple years back, Knit Picks offered these awesome kits - six months worth of yarn and sock patterns, so you could do a sock a month.  They also had a KAL on their site.  I got all excited...I ordered both kits - a whole freakin' year of cool socks!...I joined the KAL.  I even did all this in January, so I was on track to knit right through the year.  Then I got my kits and dug out the yarn and the pattern for January.  And I was stopped cold in my tracks.  Toe-up socks?  What the SamHill are toe-up socks?  What's a "backward loop CO"???  The instructions I found on the internet just didn't make sense, and I was too embarrassed to post on the KAL I'd just joined and say, "I've got no frickin' idea how to do any of this.  HELP!!!!!!"  So, I tossed it all in the closet and tried to forget I ever thought I'd be able to knit socks. 

If you've been reading my blog even semi-regularly, you know that what that really meant was the idea was simply marinating in my brain, among all the other ideas that ferment up there till one day they pop to the forefront of my consciousness like a big bubble of determination.  I WILL figure out a backward loop CO!!!  I SHALL KNIT SOCKS!!!!  You can insert a video of Mel Gibson in "Braveheart" here...or John Belushi in "Animal House"...yer pick...I'll sit here and scritch Wilbur's belly till you get the mental image you prefer.  Got it?  Okay...

Just like that old adage about the teacher appearing when the student is ready, or perhaps the knitter having developed a certain level of concentration that just wasn't there a couple years ago (I'm betting on this one!), when I got the pattern out a couple weeks ago and looked at it again...it just wasn't nearly so intimidating.  I perused a couple books on sock knitting and of course checked the internet for that pesky backward loop CO...and it all made sense!  I grabbed my needles, cast on a toe, knit for about 2", then tried on the sock...it was too big.  Frogged it, went down to #1 needles and started over again..and the results (so far) are below. I am a proud sockmamabear!  Yes...there are a few holes...it's my first, remember...

Is this an awesome toe, or what?

Yes...there's a little hole where the heel meets the instep...sigh...

Nice heel...even if the instructions were a little confusing...

Instep with lace pattern

So...all I need to do is finish the leg, and my first sock will be done!!!  And you KNOW you'll be seeing lots of pictures of it.

Last week, Discontinued Brand Name Yarn was offering the chance to win an Easter basket full of delicious (and not nearly as fattening as candy!) yarn with every order.  Who could pass that up, right?  Sad to say, I didn't win the basket, but the yarn arrived yesterday, and I love it as much as if it were a whole basket of yarn.  It is, after all 996 yards of Indie Dyer Supersock Lace in the most amazing Emerald City colorway.

This yarn is so soft!!!

Auntie Em!!!  Auntie Em!!!

Pay no attention to that woman behind the yarn skein...

Yarn porn at its finest...Happy knitting!

Large and In Charge

So, last night, Laurie commented on my last blog post and talked a bit about the difficulties of managing a beloved older pet - in her case, an older cat.  That reminded me it was a year ago yesterday that we lost The Big Guy...Lester.   The 22-pound SumoKitty.  The HunkaHunka Burnin' Purr.  The Behemoth.

He was a big cat.  Just a big, big cat.  We rationed his food his entire life.  He stayed a big, big cat.  A big cat with a big attitude and a big personality.  His mother was a stray who was adopted by a friend, and I adopted Lester at the moment he was born, "I want that one."  Three months later, he came home to live with Tittums, Gaspe, and me (Romeo was still just that nice guy who worked in IT who I had lunch with every few weeks).

-The bathroom sink...his favorite place on the entire planet...

He had a good life.  He could be the most affectionate cat in the world or the biggest gangsta, depending on what suited his needs.  The most traumatic thing that ever happened to him was when Romeo and I moved into The Cottage.  Lester was three and had never seen steps before - we had to teach him how to go up and down steps.  He had a great buddy in Gaspe, my tuxedo kitty, and even Tittums, the PsychoBitch, tolerated him as much as she was able.  When we got Wilbur, Lester adjusted quickly to the "big new strange cat" in the house, and it wasn't long before they were playing herding games.

Lester went into kidney failure when he was nine, and I had to give him sub-Q fluids for a few weeks.  Unlike a lot of cats, he was always a good patient, and as long as he had a spoonful of yogurt in front of him, he cared not that I was behind him, pumping him full of water.  We pulled him through, and he thrived for six more years.  Then his thyroid went haywire.  We put him on meds, and he rallied for a couple more month, but he also developed painful digestive problems that threw both his kidneys and thyroid out of whack.  So...a year ago yesterday, four days shy of his 16th birthday, we said a loving goodbye to Lester, proud member of CA (Catnip Anonymous), Chicago bears linebacker wannabe, and just all around marvelous MegaCat. 

We miss you, Les.  Even Wilbur misses you.

A P.S. to Laurie...we've had Wilbur checked twice for Cushing's in the past year.  Will probably have him checked again in a week or so when he has his exam.  He has several symptoms, but his bloodwork always tests negative. 

See these?

Yup...those be my fingers.  Why are they crossed?  Because...and I'm almost afraid to jinx things by bragging (heaven knows I've thought I was at this place before...)...but...I think I may have finally found the cause of this boy's awful tummy problems.

For the past three months, we (meaning mostly me...) have been working like crazy and losing LOTS of sleep trying to get to the bottom of the acid reflux/IBD/bilious vomiting syndrome that has cursed sweet Wilbur and our family.  I have rarely slept longer than six hours a night and, even then, have kept one ear open, listening for restlessness, lip smacking, whimpering...any sign that disaster may be near.  I am one tired chicky.

But...we have had two very good days in a row, and I think I may have found the last piece to the puzzle - water!  As in way too much of it at one time.  Wilbur is on the shady side of 12, and he has been having some cognitive issues recently.  He's also a border collie who has had weird obsessive behaviors throughout his life.  When his tummy troubles began, we noticed his water intake doubled.  After all his bloodwork came back normal, the vet decided he was drinking water to try to settle the acid in his tummy - kind of like when we drink something trying to rid ourselves of heartburn.  Drinking became a sign that his tum was upset.

Last week was a bad week for Wilbur and me.  He was doing a lot of urping, his energy level was very low...he seemed pretty out of it a lot of the time.  It was a bad week for me because I was sleeping even less, and I was wracking my sleep-deprived brain trying to come up with a solution.  Call it an Easter Miracle...I think I found the solution!

Friday night, sitting at the kitchen table watching him drink more and more water, it came to me...what if he's not drinking because he's nauseous...what if he's nauseous because he's drinking so freakin' much water???  What is he's overloading his system and the drinking is an obsessive behavior?  Suddenly, I had a plan!  And as if to confirm my hypothesis, after I put his water bowl up, gave him his evening Pepcid and went to bed, he slept (which means I slept!) eight whole hours!!!!  Saturday morning, I calculated how much water he needed for the day and how to ration that out in small servings.  And I started giving him 150ml in his water bowl every 2-3 hours.  We have had two whole days of no urps and great energy for Wilbur, and two very restful nights of sleep for Romeo and me.  Yes, fingers are crossed...toes, too...in fact, any appendage which will cross...next, I'll take on the farts (Wilbur's, you understand...).

In between my veterinary experimentation, I have been knitting.  In fact, I reknit and finished the Shalom Cardigan.  In retrospect, I wish I'd made it about 3" longer, but I'm still pleased with it.  I'm also on the fence about the buttons.  I wanted to use some vintage buttons from the combined Mom/Grandma McLaughlin button box, but could only find one of the two I liked best, so I decided to do mismatched buttons.  Both buttons look great with the yarn.  However, in retrospect, I may lose the pink button and just have a one-button cardigan.  Opinions???  Other than "Dear god, woman...you really need to get in shape..."

Or maybe I just shouldn't attempt horizontal stripes...look up "big as a barn" in the dictionary, and you'll see the above photo.  Yikes!

I'll leave you all with a great little idea I got here from Lifehacker (one of my favorite sites).  Whodathunk you could have such fun with binder clips!

Chag Pesach Sameach, Happy Easter and...if there's another holiday being celebrated that I'm not aware of, fill me in - we'll celebrate anything that isn't nailed down!  Woooo-hooooooooo...

In the end, all you can do is your best...

It's true in knitting, and it's true in life.  I was not given the opportunity to say a formal goodbye to my friend, Val.  Lis never let me know the arrangements.  I was not surprised by this.  In fact, I would have been more surprised if she had included me.  For as "close" a friendship as we had all those years ago, there was always a wall and a competitiveness.  A person could only get so close, could only have so many good things happen or be so happy before she would become uncomfortable and withdraw or lash out.  I hoped that time and especially the passing of a man who was like a brother to me back then...and much more to her, someone I brought into her life, would have resolved those issues.  Sadly, I guess not.  I have a lot of pictures and a lot of happy memories, and they are a great comfort.  And I am here if she needs me.  As I said, all any of us can do is our best.  I did...and I'm sure she did, too.

I've been doing a lot of knitting, but it's pretty random.  I started the Shalom Cardigan  from Megan McFarlane's blog, Involving the Senses.  This is such a cool cardi, and I've seen the finished product on several blogs and just drooled over it.  So...my turn!  I decided to knit in my most all-time ultimate favorite yarn, Universal Yarn Classic Shades in the Grapevine colorway.  Is this not the most gorgeous yarn you've ever seen???  I swear I want to knit wallpaper for my house out of this yarn.  I cannot get enough of it!

This cardigan is a real instant gratification project!  I started it on Tuesday

and by Wednesday afternoon, I was here

actually, I was a lot farther...I was about 30 rows from being finished.  That's when I tried it on...and didn't like it.  I don't like clothes that "hug".  I'm far beyond the age where it's attractive for this body to wear huggy clothes and, even when I was younger, I didn't want to highlight every curve or lack thereof.  Lovely cardigan...fit like a second skin.  So...I frogged it.  Then I went out on Ravelry and read a bazillion project pages with different notes for adjusting the size and fit.  I decided to tackle the project again, using Hummingmoonbeam's alterations.  I'm on row 21, and I think this will be a better fit.  I love this cardi and am determined to make it fit me well (skim, NOT hug!).

Monday was an exciting day - my lace yarn from My Name Is Yarn arrived from Greece!  Wooo-hoooo!!!!  This is the yarn I'm using to make Anne Hanson's Pine and Ivy Shawl.  I was specifically looking for something very "foresty" but more than just "green", and I thought the Moss 'N Berries colorway was perfect.  What do you think?

I started the shawl Tuesday, and immediately ran into a big scary thang - the pattern is 13 pages long!!!   Luckily, I'm participating in the KAL on Ravelry, and the fine folks there pointed out that this is because Anne does complete instructions for both charts and written instructions.  A-ha!  Yes, she does!  And these charts are quite wonderful!

The next big scary thang - casting on 503 stitches!  I hate to cast on.  You get me past about 20 stitches and I start twitching.  I also tend to cast on very tightly, no matter how hard I try not to.  So, I took a deeeeeep breath, grabbed some #7 needles...and I cast on 503 freakin' stitches.  I knit the three garter stitch rows for the setup...and then I collapsed in a heap.

No...I really didn't collapse in a heap.  I did a little happy dance, snapped Wilbur's harness on him, and we went for a victory walk.  While we were out, I did some collecting, and when we got home, I composed this little still life with yarn in honor of my Pine and Ivy Shawl.

Wilbur really wasn't impressed, as you can tell...

Sigh...why is Mom always dragging that flashing, beeping, clicking awful thing around with her all the time?

My newest challenge is to teach my friend, Cindy, how to make the Ten Stitch Blanket.  We had our first lesson last night, and it was a comedy of errors (mostly mine...).  She asked me at the offset, "Do you pitch or catch?"   Well...I catch...she pitches.  Different dialects of the same language.  It made teaching...difficult to say the least.  But we had some good laughs and will schedule another lesson soon.  In the meantime, I'm trying to learn to "pitch" for instructional purposes.  I am Victor Martinez...trying to become Cliff Lee.  God help me...

The fun never stops!