Birthday Weekend Wrap Up

Hello faithful readers, it is I, the faithless blogger. More like lazy. I haven’t been cheating on you; I just haven’t been paying attention to you.

As you know (thanks Brooke!) my birthday was this past weekend. I had a fantastic birthday. We won’t discuss which birthday it was. Here are the highlights:

• My parents came to visit


• James took me to see Chicago the musical


• Brooke wrote me a wonderful poem


• I learned how to make a pot roast


• My parents delivered my bread maker


• Mom and Dad gave me a bunch of soap making “stuff”


• Amy gave me a bunch of yarn and a slow cooker cookbook


• James parents gave me “Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter”


• Sally caught a mole

On the knitting front: the dog toys were a complete success. The felted ball is officially Sally’s favorite everyday toy. They actually ended up more egg-shaped than round, but Sally couldn’t care less. I forgot to mention that I used the pattern developed by Eve Clevenger.

And I’ve been working on the Isis Wrap! I was totally pissed off that I had to tink back 4 rows but I persevered and I’m finally back on track. It took my four days to correct the mistake, but doggoneit! I did it. I’m estimated that I have about 20 rows to go and then I begin assembling!

On the strange dream front: apparently my subconscious blames one of my college professors for the fact that I hate my chosen profession. In my dream she was the devil and I had to kill her. She had crazy Diana Ross hair and tiny black eyes. Joy made an appearance in the dream. She was busy planning a party and didn’t seem to think that killing the professor was the best course of action. (An interesting side note: Joy asked me where Jason was and I very carefully explained when I dream about Jason and when I don’t and that he wouldn’t be making an appearance.)

Next Week: The Finished Isis Wrap! (IhopeIhopeIhopeIhope)

I must be quick

The dog is finally sleeping so I have a few moments to myself. I never imaged she'd take this much of my time.

She's definitely feeling right at home. She's figured out the playing stuff. And by playing I mean chewing on things. If she's really wound up she'll chase the ball because it's an excuse to run around the house like her butt is on fire. The only thing missing from her life is another dog to play with. Whenever she sees another dog she starts crying like her heart will break. We've run into a few dogs that have gotten off their leashes and that makes her day. Luckily they've all been friendly dogs so far. It surprises me how careless people are about their animals.

Sally loves to chew on things. She's pretty good about only chewing on her toys but at the top of her "I Wish I Could Chew On That" list are my fuzzy feet slippers. We finally decided that she must be able to smell something in the wool. So in order to take her mind off the slippers I am knitting her a felted ball. I figured that would be a good way to use up the odd balls of wool I have. I finished knitting one last night and left it on the coffee table. This morning she got it off the coffee table and was cuddling with it.

You may be wondering what happened with the Isis Wrap. I'm fed up with it. That's what happened. On Friday I realized that I had dropped the last stitch on the row, 4 rows back. It was just sticking off like a little toe. How can I possibly be making this many mistakes? I already knit this piece once and I didn't have this much trouble. I'm going to stick to dog toys for a few days.

Welcome Home Sally!

We brought Sally home last night! She seems to be settling in well. James took the day off work so that she could get used to the two of us being home and to help out if she turned out to be trouble. She is an angel. She is partially housebroken, which means she holds it until she's outside but she doesn't tell us that she has to go out. So we're taking her out a lot until we figure out her limits and that's just fine with her.

She doesn't quite know how to play yet. We have a rope toy, a squeaky toy, and a tennis ball for her. She's very interested in them but she doesn't know what to do with them. She knows that we expect her to do something with them and she desperately wants to please us so she just ends up crying when we try to play.

When we picked her up at the vet she remembered James immediately. When we left, I got into the truck and James put her on my lap. As he was walking around to the driver's side she started crying and when James got in the truck she climbed into his lap. So James and I switched so she could ride home in her preferred lap.

She's warmed up to me though. She was pretty tired and she slept most of the evening and this morning. She always wants to be cuddled up to one of us.

I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done on the Isis Wrap. It is now about half way done. More about that later. I have a dog to attend to.

Slippers, Sweaters, and Swag

Well, Sally comes home tomorrow. So that means lots of puppy pictures in the next post. So before that happens here are knitting pictures.

Here are the completed purple fuzzy feet. Very nice. I'll mail them sometime. Getting them done was the hard part. Right?

I think I'm actually going to finish the Isis wrap. I'm up to row 30 of the back. Almost a 1/3 done.
Last night I discovered that I had made a mistake somewhere and I tinked back 5 rows to find that I had missed a yarn over. Why didn't I notice it until 5 rows later? It was either the engrossing movie on Sci-Fi or drugs. They're pretty much the same in my case. So now I have stitch markers after each pattern repeat to prevent another missed yo. I simply cannot be trusted with numbers.

Yesterday I realized that I had been most remiss in recounting my Christmas loot. I neglected this most wonderful present.

Brooke made me this groovy knitting bag that in the future it can also be a cheeky diaper bag.

Cheeky Monkey!

Good Puppy Hunting

Our Saturday search was successful. We found a puppy.

Her name is Sally and she is a 6 month old terrier mix. She's been at the pound for about 2 weeks. Someone brought her in when she dug into their backyard. How could anyone give her up?

The pound employee let her out of her cage so that we could play with her and she immediately climbed into James's lap. We don't have her yet because the pound requires that we have her fixed before we take her home so she's at the vet's right now and we should have her sometime later this week.

On the knitting front I finished my sister-in-law's slipper socks, the right front of the Isis Wrap, and am 15 rows into the back. I don't have any pictures because how could knitting pictures compete with this?

Such Defiance!

I think I said I didn't want to hear anything about my long absence. Such disobedience must be punished. Later.

Today I give you this most beautiful of tattoos, courtesy of Knitta, Please. The Knitta crew provides the city of Houston with knitted graffiti. They say it is a more considerate form of graffiti. "If they don't like it, they can just unbutton it." You can read the full story here.

Christmas Wrap Up

I don't want to hear anything about how long it's been since I posted. I got issues.

We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas Day with my family and New Year's with James family. I managed to get all but two of the Christmas presents finished. My mom loved her slippers. She only took them off to go outside. And James Mom loved the scarf. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of her wearing it.

I got lots of wonderful presents. My family gave me some kitchen cotton and Cotton Tots yarn. James parents gave me Knitting on the Edge, Knitting Vintage Socks, and Folk Shawls. Brooke gave me the awesomely wonderful Knitted Babes. She has already put in an order for one of the dolls and I have already decided that I have to make all of them immediately! James gave me a Ball Winder and Swift! Yes! A ball winder and swift. It has been a very busy setup for the past couple of weeks. I went through all my yarn and wound everything that could possibly need winding. And as an early birthday present, he gave me this wrist ball holder. He thought it might be useful on long car trips. I've been using it just because it's nifty.

I finished Amy's slippers and I'll mail them soon. They felted up a little bit small, just a tiny bit and I'm hoping they'll stretch. I'll finished Julie's slippers tonight and then it's back to the Isis Wrap! Oh yes! I am going to finish it!

This weekend we are going puppy hunting. You'll hear all about that next time on: Kankucho.