Restless Knitter

After my last post, I had to send Janice (who, by the way, was my wonderful roomie at SAFF) some email hugs. If it weren’t for her leaving a comment on fixing the broken piece myself, I would have ordered and waited on new ones. Thanks to her and Home Depot, the harness is now tied up with some non-stretchy nylon cord and I was back in business. Yay! After I got it tied back up, I found some warp threads that seemed loose so I tried to fix them. Two broke. I ended up cutting the warp off and tossing it in the trash. While that may make some people gasp in horror, I’ll remind you that this was a $4 cone of yarn and I still have 95% of that cone left. I think it’s going to be better off as a knitting yarn.

Ever since we moved here, (see that? since.we.moved.here.) Bella has been licking her feet. The first time we took her to the vet, there were some things stuck in her foot. We figured she picked them up somewhere on the road trip across country. Now, it’s a daily thing. She licks so much that she makes her foot raw. She has licked the hair off her thighs. She looks like she has mange. We’ve taken her to the vet 3 times, once to one vet and twice to another, and neither can find anything in the paws. The once $$$ vet did a scraping (no mites), said she didn’t know why she was licking, and maybe put a sock on her. The $ vet gave her a shot both times, which stops the licking for a little bit, and said it’s most likely allergies. Again, today, she can’t put her foot on the ground because she is licking the pads right off her frickin’ feet. I’ve soaked her back feet in epsom salt water (she hates me for that but it seems to help, or maybe that’s just in my head) and now she has socks on.

Let’s take a closer look at those socks, shall we? Of course!

I am So. Mean.

I know she’s a dog and not a fairy but I keep wanting to sing that sock song when I look at her.

So how many magazines did I buy? 112. Yes, that’s one hundred twelve. I’m finding that number includes 5 or so duplicates. I’m not done going through them yet.

Bella stuff: I had to take Bella to the vet again yesterday. I had to take her for a foot problem when we first got here. Of course, it had to be on a holiday where you have to go to the emergency clinic and pay the equivalent of a house payment. She had some type of thorns in her foot. Big black ugly ones, making her foot a lovely shade of maroon. She got meds, the foot started looking better, and we went on. I noticed it’s starting to turn maroon again. It’s red between the toes and it looks like her nail bed is infected. I did a little internet searching and found a vet someone was happy with. This guy was super nice as was his staff. He looked her foot over real well, gave her a shot, 7 days of antibiotics, and trimmed her nails. All for $56! If I were still taking her to her regular vet in GA, that would have cost way more than that. I probably wouldn’t have walked out for less than $150. Hell, they charged $12.50 for a nail trim alone, $2 for sticking a thermometer up her rear, $49 for walking in the door, $1 for listening to her heart (Do you want us to listen to her heart? - Huh? - That will be extra. - WTF? (and then you feel like a heartless beotch if you don’t want to pay a measly dollar to have her heart listened to)), and so on and so forth. Even after we move an extra 25-30 miles away, I’m thinking we’ll drive the extra miles for this guy. He cared more about her than sticking a dollar in his pocket.

House stuff: I know, I know. Click away now.
It’s hard to believe that we’ll have house keys next week. I’m so ready to be in the house, and also not ready. We’ve been shopping this weekend. The only thing we have to show for it is something to sleep on. We still need something to sit on and a refrigerator. I found that you really can’t just look at Consumer Reports and take their word for it. I found that a fridge they rate as a good one is getting crap reviews from real world users. I did figure out which one I want (I couldn’t find a single complaint on it) but it’s taller than the space available. That means we’ll be taking out the cabinets over the current fridge. It’s sad because it’s not like we can afford to lose any cabinet space, especially since one is being used to house the sprinkler system controls (wtf) but I really like this fridge. And it could take up to 3 weeks to get it. Must I do everything the hard way? I guess that makes life a little less boring.

I wonder how long it will take to find all my knitting things.

The weather has been gorgeous lately. I’m positive all the really cold stuff is gone because last week I saw a mosquito and a butterfly, multiple times. What kind of meanie would Mother Nature be to smack us with more cold and kill the pretty butterfly? With the warmer weather comes thoughts of summer knits. I’ve been thinking of Ribby Shell thoughts, but I’m also tempted by the yellow tank in the latest Knit Simple. The Knit Simple tank calls for Classic Elite Star. Me and wavy yarns don’t get along so I’d have to do some substituting there. I should really concentrate on finishing the blanket first though. If I start something else, that thing will never get done. I know myself too well.

Around 2 weeks ago, Bella became extremely interested in her left hind foot. At first I thought she was just doing her normal licky thing. The dog isn’t happy unless she’s licking something, anything, usually me, ick. But this was going beyond her normal obsession with all things lickable. This wasn’t a simple giving the foot a bath lick. It looked like she wasn’t going to be happy until she ate the foot right off her leg. On closer inspection, one of the little pads was red and looked like it had 2 little puncture wounds. Of course, you take the dog to the vet and those disappear and the foot looks almost normal but not normal enough to not treat it. They gave her 10 days of a mild antibiotic, thinking she’d stepped on something and maybe a splinter or some such was still in there and gotten infected. I took her back to the vet last week because she came in one morning and her foot was bleeding. Again, by the time I get her to the vet, they can’t see where it would be bleeding from. “Finish the meds because it can take up to 14 days for things to clear up.” The meds are finished, it’s been 14 days, and now we have this:

A white lump with a rough dark spot. Between that little pad and the bottom one, there’s some dark spots that looks like dried blood, but it’s not. I don’t think this qualifies as a DeFeets of Cuteness so we’ll be making another trip to the vet today.

Because I’m 5, I couldn’t resist picking up this little $1 pot at Target. Look Ma, I’m going to grow a 10 foot Sunflower in a 2 inch pot. I also bought one to grow Forget Me Nots.

I said I’d have pictures today, but I didn’t say they would all be knitting. The other night I was out watering my flowers and happened to see this little feller

The next day, I saw him again

Or maybe it’s a she. Whatever it was, it was a small one. We grow ‘em bigger than that in Small Town. When I was just a young thing, we’d play with them. They came to school with us in a jar for show and tell. Unless the boy on the bus took the lid off the jar so he could hold it, then they just got a free bus ride and heard a lot of screaming from the wimpy kids, and then the bus driver. What, you didn’t play with bugs when you were little?

Here’s a better detail shot of the Cat’s Cradle scarf.

When I have this around my neck, it reaches the top of my knees so I didn’t take a picture of the full thing. For one, you wouldn’t see the detail and for another, I still haven’t cut the tails off and I don’t want you all to know just how much I procrastinate. All it would take is 2 snips of the scissors, but have I clipped them yet? No. Anyhoo, if I were to do this again, and I think I will eventually, there are a few changes I’d make. I’d make it shorter, and I’d use laceweight yarn. The sock yarn is nice, but it doesn’t show off the stitches like it should.

The most recently completed project is a Garterlac washcloth.

I’ve never done anything in entrelac, which I know isn’t usually all garter stitch, and this looked like a good piece to learn on so off I went.
Pattern is here
Needle: US 7
Yarn: Sugar ‘n Cream
Color: Cherry Swirl
Started and finished: Aug 15, 06

Bella thinks we can’t see her when she lays down in this stuff.

And last, but certainly not least… I didn’t know I’d become obsessed with Chibis. I started out with the creamy colored one that had the blue/green top and point. I was so jealous when I found out that there had previously been a cream and pink one. There was no way I was going to pay $50 for one on Ebay so I knew I’d have to live without a pretty chibi. Then there came a clear blue one. I think I tossed the cream and green/blue one because I can’t find it now. And then, then they came out with an orange one. Orange is so not one of my colors but suddenly I felt myself craving the orange Chibi. Because, you know, what if they stop making it and then I’ve lost out?! Not long after that, La starts bragging about her green one. I check the stores around here and they’re still in the orange phase. Poo. No matter though, because lookie! La sent me a green one! Thanks La!