Not Ribbed For My Pleasure...

I really hate ribbing. I mean HATE it. Those 12 rows may as well be 1200 as far as I'm concerned. 

I hate ribbing as much as I hate the 4th of July weekend. As I type, there are boomers going off. One dog is in the kitchen, relatively clueless. The other is in the bathroom, somewhat heavily medicated, and will be even more medicated in about 2 hours or so, when it really gets nuts. 

Anyone blowing off illegal fireworks (I'm in Illinois - if you're not a professional and it's down the block from me, it's illegal) needs to be fined. Not only for blatantly breaking the law, but for being a bass-pole and a dirtbag who doesn't care about their fellow neighbors. 

It's not only the pets. It's the folks with PTSD. The people with sensory disorders. The veterans. The livestock (where I'm at, there's a fair bit of livestock). Go visit any of the 4 or 5 towns which are having lovely, FREE displays of fireworks. It's safer, you don't have to worry about drunks, and you get to keep your digits. And those are over by 9:45 or 10 p.m. 

Last night it was 1:30 or so and tonight it'll be even later. I expect these shenanigans to go on all week. 

I get upset because these are the same people who complain that their water bill is going higher, their garbage bill goes up, or whatever. I have no sympathy. None. You blew your wad on pyrotechnics that you shouldn't have had, and now you have no money? Tough bananas.

And the other thing? It's always the same people. It's always the house one block over and up, and one on the end of our block. The town knows this. They choose to do nothing. 

And -- we're in a drought. Yeah, it rained the other day. Not enough. So maybe we wait till the houses catch on fire? Sounds like a solid plan. 

The Knitting...

So the detested ribbing is done and I've completed the first row of the leg. This is the second sock of the Petty Harbour pair. My hand hurts, and I have learned to stop when it gets cranky. Otherwise, I'm off knitting for a while. 

This weekend (I'm already thinking of the weekend), I think I'll go ahead and frog the Long Sands Tee. I will have had my first outpatient PT appointment on Friday, so Lord knows how sore I'll be Saturday and Sunday. 

As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to try to stay monagamous to the socks till I have the pair done. I feel like I want to finish stuff. So Long Sands is going to have to be in time-out for a bit anyway till the knitted yarn relaxes, and till I can wind up a few of the hanks that haven't been caked yet. 

That gives me time to make a mis-matched pair of the blue striped socks, since I don't think I can lay my hands on the pattern of the one sock that's finished. I may (go ahead, get ready to laugh) do a 4x2 rib on the second one. I think the first sock is something like an 8x2 rib, but I can't find the notes, so I figure if I get it "close enough," nobody's going to mind. 

And I might start a trend. Not only of fraternal twins, but of "almost" the same patterns. Who says it might not be a new thing? 

The Hip...

Things are progressing. I am FREE of the TED hose! One week post-op, I showed the nurse the marks on my left thigh, just above the knee. She was not happy, because the skin was being compromised. We didn't want to risk an infection so she determined I was very low risk for blood clots and off they came!! 

My skin is lizard-like, and I can't get around to my left foot yet, so that's been interesting. I've also started to sleep on the incision side. I checked with the PT and the nurse and they said it wasn't going to hurt. The hip is in there; it ain't goin nowhere... It's more building up your mind that it's ok. And I'm a left-side sleeper, so there's that. Even if I stay there for 3-4 minutes, my MIND says, "OK, we can move to the other side now." It's all a game. 

Physical therapy is doing well, except I'm not having fun with the hip flexor stretches. Your hip flexors are the muscles right in the crease of your hip, so if you sit down and place your thumbs at the very top of your thighs, you're close. My left side got really jacked up with the hip injury, and I was walking very bent over. Well, that's gotta be stretched out. And it's not happy about that. 

I have my last day of in-home PT on Wednesday, and then I go to outpatient. I'm off all the pain meds, and I have been "let outside" on my walker, with a companion and a gait belt. I'm also using a cane in the house.

So that using a cane thing... Wowza. I was using TWO canes pre-surgery, just so I could take the weight off the bum leg. Now, though, I have to use ONE cane to just lightly support the now "remodeled" hip, and bear more weight on the left hip. It's a real mind-trick, and has been an interesting adjustment. 

The other exercises, I can do pretty easily, thanks to some pre-hab work I did and just an overwhelming urge to get this therapy behind me. 

But that walking with a cane does have me slightly wobbly. I can tell how far my balance has been affected, and how much work I have to do. 

I have been practicing my Tadasana (Mountain Pose), just to straighten up my posture and get that balance back. 

I have a helper. We have a massage table, which has been a blessing for the PT, as it's firmer than a bed, and easy to adjust. And recently, when Hubby was helping me do the exercises, Quinn hopped up on the couch next to me to help. I have to tell you, it was a nice relaxing treat. I didn't think she had it in her. She's always been a snuggler, but this was deliberate - she  came up to where I could reach her, put a paw on the table and moved so that I didn't have to reach too far. Hubby said that I actually relaxed my leg more as I was petting her, so I guess she's hired for my in-house therapy dog for as long as it takes me to get this hip back in order. 

The Reading...

So aside from having a problem with my Kindle, which I will explain, I am reading Evelyn Waugh's "The Loved One." It's the book upon which the movie was based, and the movie is as camp as it gets. 

I'm enjoying the book, which is a skinny little thing considering how long the movie is. 

The book is enough like the movie that I can follow it. I love the skewering that Waugh gives the whole Hollywood scene, and he does it so lightly and completely. 

I was able to borrow this book from Kid #1, and I have to admit, I'm getting the vibe I had when I took "As I Lay Dying" on a plane trip... this might not be a book which you'd want to take as a travel book, but then again -- maybe you would. It would certainly start a conversation. Or stop one. 

So, the Kindle problem. I love Agatha Christie. I have a bunch of her mysteries on my Kindle and I noticed that the last 3 of them which I purchased had a problem with the downloads. It wasn't just me, because looking at the reviews/comments, this problem seems to be pretty consistent. It's as if all the "Alt" characters: *%&$^#@)>< -- all of that stuff just appears randomly in the text, making the books impossible to read. 

I complained to Amazon, which may or may not accomplish anything, but it's annoying because I paid for the books, and I cannot read the books. 

I'm not sure if it's an off-shore place which is digitizing the books. But I can tell you that when I was working in publishing, I had several projects in which I had to clean up stuff like this. 

I'm hoping that there's some resolution. But I'm not holding my breath.

The Shed...

So everyone always asks, "how much do your dogs shed?"

Here's a PART of ONE side of Raisa. 

As you can see, she is NOT amused. She is one of the few dogs I have had who doesn't like to be brushed. She grumbles, but tolerates it. 

Even Quinn is shedding more this year. 

When I'm asked, I always say, "Twice a year, six months at a time." My mom grumbles about her dog's hair (a puggle) and I just laugh. 

As long as you keep on top of it, it's not all that horrible. I did have one husky who liked to be vacuumed, which isn't all that common, I can tell you. 

So this is the "summer shed." There'll be another in the fall when their winter coats come in. Don't even try to figure it out - it's just how it works. 

Random Picture...

Talk about a throw-back. This is River. She's my first red husky. She's long across the Rainbow Bridge, and this was when we had the "perfect pack" of River, Tippi & Quinn. Quinn was so attached to River. 

She came to us just after Topaz (my black & silver husky) died, and was a boon to our then-first elkhound Gracie, who went into extreme mourning after Topaz died - so much so that my neighbor thought that BOTH dogs had passed. 

River was a retired show dog. She would have been the dog I trained to be a therapy dog if I had the job flexibility. This was after she was diagnosed with glaucoma, and before she had Cushing's Disease. 

She was definitely the queen. She had a presence; even people who were afraid of big dogs were drawn to her. I miss her. 

Mr. Squirrel, You're Not Getting the Point...

As I was up at just-after-dark:a.m., after taking the dogs out for their morning ablutions, I looked out my kitchen window while my water was heating for the morning tea.

This is what I saw... If you click on the picture to make it larger, you'll notice that all my herb plants have screens on them. That was to keep the squirrels out - the little buggers like to dig to plant sunflower seeds. So I thought I was pretty clever. 

Squirrel on the wire

This guy, however, (before I grabbed my camera) was looking right at me...Sitting up on his hind legs. Now, these things are sharp! I just grabbed one yesterday to cut some tarragon. I walked quietly away, grabbed my camera and shot this through a kitchen window with screen, so it's not as sharp as I'd like. By the time I came back to shoot, he turned around. Flicked his tail. And scampered off. 


He obviously "didn't get the point" even though he was sitting right on it!

And then the other day, we brought in all the birdfeeders - at least setting them on the porch, in anticipation of yet another major t-storm. Kid #2 put one on the porch and I didn't think anything of it. I had put a couple there after I filled them. I ran an errand, and then since we didn't have another storm, I figured I'd put them back on their hooks. Walked out to the porch to see one of the more "open" ones dumped over. 

"What???" Then I saw it. A chipmunk. Little stinker had tipped the thing over and was porking out on the seed! He scampered away and there was really nothing I could do. I grabbed a dustpan and just tossed the seed onto the lawn. They may as well enjoy it. 

Cooking: So today I made sort-of-Italian chicken in the crock pot with my own canned sauce. I cut up peppers and chunked an onion. Layered that on the bottom, snipped 2 large sprigs of Rosemary, grabbed some basil and layered the chicken, the herbs and the sauce. Added salt & pepper, added about 10 oz of water and slapped it on "high." Made some pasta that Kid #2 brought home and we just ate that for dinner. Got enough leftovers (or "plan-overs" like they used to tell us as Tupperware sales-ladies) for the week.

Now I have to do about a bazillion dishes. I want my dishwasher fixed!! Even if I can't put every single thing in, it would certainly cut down the load, right?

Knitting: On the decrease on the last Robin's Nest sock!! We may have a pair by next week. I have one gripe: Either I've slept on my hands funny, or I need to take a break with a pair of larger needles. My thumb hurts. That hasn't happened since I recovered from the surgery. Urgh.

Dogs: So far today, the dogs have been out of their "restraints." Quinn's been out of the Thundershirt (which we were using to keep her cysts from getting oozy on the furniture. Tippi was in The Collar of Shame. But so far, she's left her leg alone. 

However, tonight, they'll be in their "suits" because I'm not interested in staying up all night keeping tabs on them! Oh, and they're blowing their coats. Big time. 

Work: I have my "too long meeting" tomorrow, then I assist at a yoga class. I also have to plan the sequence for Tuesday's class. And figure out what I want to do for Wednesday's class. Now that I'm teaching it instead of taking it, I do have to get more disciplined in actually doing the yoga practice.

And at training next week, we have our first quiz. Of course, they're not going to flunk us, but nevertheless, I do have to study. It's all based on homework, so I should be ok if I just review everything. Although I enjoy the training, and this weekend will be observing (I don't invert...), I'm tired. I'd like to be done with it. I have to catch up on one workshop I missed, and then I can get my 200-hour certification.

Well, I'd be interested to hear what y'all are doing for July 4. I'm going to be trying to keep 2 dogs calm. They're not fond of fireworks. And our neighbors are, unfortunately, idiots. 

Pictures! We Got Pictures!!

I still have to clean off the 2 memory cards, one of which is full (which is really weird because it's a big honkin' memory card). But here are some pictures.

Baby afghans are done. D.O.N.E.  It'll be a while, I hope, before I have to knit another one. I have one ball each of the yarns left, so I can make hats with the remainder when I give K her sweaters around Christmas -- or more likely, we'll give them to her at Thanksgiving so that she can have them for the kiddies.

Here's the both of them - the afghans, I mean, though the babies are apparently ready any time now:  As you can see, the blankets are very different in texture, but about the same size. I don't know which kid will get which one, but since I made Kid #1's larger blanket in yellow, I'm thinking his little brother will get orange and his little sister will get the yellow one.

I have to say, I tried a new soap: Indigo Wild's ZumBaby soap. And it didn't work out so well. I mean, it got them nice and fresh, but we ended up washing them THREE times, finally using All Free 'N Clear to get some of the soap scum off. I wonder whether it's because the blankets are 75% wool and we did them in cold water? Because we did some silk stuff with the same soap and those came out fine.

Anyway, this is Encore Worsted, 2 strands held together for both, so they're plenty warm.  Here's a closer shot so you can see the patterns. It's not my greatest shot, but I'm short!! The pattern on the orange one is actually a 'pinwheel' and the other is what Encore's 8-Hour Afghan book calls 'Textured.' That one almost looks like a broken rib or a variation on baskeweave. I like both of them. But I would NEVER have been able to do either one in "8 hours."

Now...........FINALLY. I can do something different. So my mom and I are taking a bus trip (God help me) -- I will need knitting. But something mindless. So I am doing the "Before And After Bias Scarf" from Churchmouse Classics. Find it on Ravelry or here. My colorways are Silky Alpaca Lace 2481 and 2446. You can find those here. Nuts. I don't have the beads with me. However, they're a "peacock" color and a "peridot" color. I left them at home.

So, the yarn: It's 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk. This is a gorgeous, GORGEOUS yarn. I'm using Addis to knit it because the birch needles I started with (a) were straights; and (b) had too much "stick" and the yarn wasn't moving nicely. The Addi needles, a circular, are much speedier than I would normally like, but hey - you use what you've got!

The pattern says "...it's so ugly (truly!) before it's blocked and so beautiful after." Well, they're right. Here's the peacock colorway. It's lovely and it's knitting up with a nice yellow-green "swirl" thing happening. But it's really one of those "Is this going to HAPPEN?" kind of projects. You can't really see the bias till you've knitted a ways. And you have to knit 97" of this. NINETY SEVEN INCHES. Make one at the beginning and K2tog at the end...the provisional cast on is because you'll be able to bind off with beads, which I wasn't going to do but after thinking about it, the beads (size 6) will add a little "drape" to this already drapey scarf. 

I am doing 2 of them - the pattern shows the model wearing a variegated one and a solid; my freezer -- oops, OFFICE -- is cold most of the summer, so I thought that I would at least have the option of wearing 2 of them if I wanted to. I thought that starting with the variegated one would keep me happy on the bus. That, and a fully-charged Kindle! So far, I have about 7" done (yay - only 90 to go!) and it is finally starting to "look like something." You can see the bias and while Hubby thought it was socks, it's clearly not. It's somewhat fiddly on the Addi needles, but that's ok. This picture is obviously not a 7" chunk of fabric, but it gives you an idea of the lacy feel of this project.

Now I get to decide what to do with the Five Dog Yarn, and perhaps that will be my next project. Or better, maybe, restarting the washcloth stuff or a cotton tee. I have lots of "passed over" yarn from my friend Doris, who's "cleaning house." She's got great taste. I also bought the "Shawls from Sock Yarns" book (that's so not the title, but I don't have the book handy....). Doris gave me some TOTALLY SCRUMPTIOUS Madelaine Tosh yarn in forest green color tones. That is the perfect weight for one of those shawls. I also have some silk/merino in a pretty lavender which I could use for a cardigan since it's DK weight.

While I truly do enjoy knitting for the family, it's nice to have "me knitting" instead of "obligation knitting" to do.

Before and After...

For your info, I'm typing this with Quinn squidged under my desk between me in my chair and my hands on the laptop. She's freaked out about something, and I can't figure it out.

So. "Before and After." (insert drumroll here....) The dog yarn is DONE. Well, it's spun. This is what it looked like when I dropped it off: 5 grocery bags in the  back of my truck. I have to find the picture; it's somewhere - either on my phone or one of 2 cameras...

5-dog-yarn

This is what it looks like now:

You can see the tans, a bit of red and the grey more than you can see any black. Though one husky was black/silver (my Topaz) and the Elkhounds have black on their guard hairs. This is lots and LOTS of undercoat, which is mainly tan and white.  And while River was red, as she grew older and as Cushing's took away almost 100% of her guard hair, the undercoat got more tan.

I'm going to make this into a shawl at least; perhaps a scarf or cowl, too. There's over 1,000 yards of this. And yes, it's the most expensive yarn I've ever purchased. It's a "rare" fiber - nobody's likely to have this mix! It's a little rough, but I have a paper that says it'll "halo" after I wash it. I love the colors.

This is 100% dog hair. No wool mixed in, which does concern me a bit,  because I'm not sure that this is something I'd make up into say an afghan. There's a question in my mind about durability, particularly since my friend Diana over in England has done a coat in Elkhound + wool. She suggested adding the wool, because it's a long-staple fiber, where dog hair is pretty short in length. We'll see, though. If it's a shawl, at least it's more likely to be something that, while  I use it, I'm not slinging it over the couch on a daily basis.

"This smells like MEEEEEEEEE!"

This is Tippi, going NUTS as she's sniffing and snorting her way through one of the hanks. It was as if she couldn't figure out why "this stuff smells like ME!!!"...

And yep, this is now "off my life list." I wish I would have had more of the husky hair, but for some reason, particularly with Topaz, since I had had her from a pup, I always thought there was "more time."

And as any dog person will tell you - Nope, there is NEVER more time. You want it, but it never quite works out that way.

My friends all want to pet the yarn, and one of them suggested that I go to the LYS (which is currently on a tear about "don't talk about yarn you didn't buy here") and tell them, "No, I didn't buy this here.  I grew it at home!"

So, wet husky doesn't really smell, but wet Elkhound does. Does that mean I'll smell MORE like a dog if this gets wet??