Hound Dog

Reference

Well, I said that I would tell you what was keeping me away from the blog, so here it is.

Actually, it is more than one thing. I have been very busy at work, so coming home to sit at the computer to write some more isn’t high on my list of things to do. But the bigger thing has been what many of you are already aware of, we had to say goodbye to our dog Bogey back on July 31.

snowprisoner Bogey in action

We did see the day coming. In fact, the socks that I made for Mr. Penney’s birthday are in the Hounddog colorway because of how closely it mimicked Bogey’s own coloring.

hounddog-socks

It sounds silly to some, I know, but without having Bogey around; things just have not been the same around here. Motivation to do things kind of went away with him.

As time passed, we decided to start looking at rescues because we thought that maybe we should give another dog a home. At the same time, we decided to donate items to be raffled off by our vet because of how good they were to us when the time came for Bogey. They use the funds from the raffle to pay for the medical expenses of strays that people bring in as well as those that don’t have enough to meet the bills that a pet can sometime rack up. Paul donated a gift certificate for a massage, and I donated the shawl that I entered in this past year’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

oliveshawldone

Just as Paul was about to leave the house to take our donations up to the vet, the vet emailed Paul. Mind you, the vet had no idea that Paul was coming over there with donations, nor that we were contemplating adopting a dog. The email was that a beagle had just come to them through one of their other clients. This beagle’s owner had just died, and the beagle needed a home or he would be going to the pound. Were we thinking about adopting a dog?

The stars had aligned and we adopted Comet, a six year old beagle on December 15.

1509066_665265926859411_755037144_n

Are things the same? No, but they aren’t supposed to be the same either. Comet is a very good boy, like Bogey was, but has a good bit more energy. He is still getting adjusted to his new home, as he was shuffled around for awhile before he came to us.

I must say, when I was contemplating writing this blog entry over a month ago, this was not the ending I thought this story was going to have. But I am very glad it does end this way, by beginning something new. We still miss Bogey, but we like to think that he was somehow involved in getting Comet to us.

Next up, one more reason why you haven’t heard from me in awhile.

Copyright 2013 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

Apologize

Reference

Well, Mel ask for a close up, so here it is.

Yep, the tattoos are long gone. They only lasted about two days, and then they started to wear off, so we washed them the rest of the way off. You see, they were only airbrush tattoos. Sorry to disappoint.

We got the tattoos on vacation down Rehoboth Beach, DE. On our first night down there, we were walking Rehoboth Avenue, and saw the tattoo designs outside of a place that does teeth whitening and spray tans. (Wait, it gets better.)  As we were looking at the designs, our twelve year old saleslady comes out to greet us and inform us that the airbrush tattoos are buy 2, get 1 free. How could we refuse? (So, Roseann, you are correct, there was a Chinese character on Mr. Penney’s upper arm. That one was performed by our young saleslady. That was our free tattoo.) The tattoos were rather realistic while they were on, as we went to the Double L (a leather bar) and people were surprised to hear that the tattoos were not permanent.

As for how long they lasted, they started to wear off after two days. Not wanting to look smudged, we washed them off after that.

I was actually kind of surprised by how mine looked. While I like how tattoos look on some people, I figured it just wasn’t something that wouldn’t look right on me, like I was trying to be something that I am not. But the armband that I chose, that couldn’t go around my whole bicep (Welcome to the gun show!), reminded me if ikat, and didn’t look totally out of place on me, like I feared. Maybe one day I will get a tattoo, but I do have the concern that Lisa expressed, which is how it will look 30 years from now. Everything might not be so taut and lovely as it is now.

As for fibery things, all that is moving along at a good pace. Here are a couple pics of the spinning as of a few weeks ago.

All of my available bobbins were full for this picture. I have had to wind the yarn off the bobbins to free them up for more spinning, of which I have done two more bobbins. I figure I have about three more bobbins worth of spinning to go with this fleece. I am thinking of dyeing the yarn different colors for warp and weft, so if anyone has recommendations for dyeing handspun singles such that they do not become an unruly mess, I am all ears.

The socks are nearing completion.

And Roseann was correct again, these are for Mr. Penney. His birthday was while we were on vacation, and these are to keep his feet comfy. They were also a chance for me to test knit the write up of this pattern, which was a good thing, because the instructions for the heel were a mess.

The scarf is coming along as well.

It is still kind of boring as far as knitting projects go, but the change in colors helps.

And there is one more thing,

That I will get into later.

Copyright 2010 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

The Waiting Game

Reference

Last time, it was my father. This time, it is my mother. Most of the past week has been spent waiting for and/or worrying about my mother. She had some pretty serious back surgery this week. This surgery will hopefully give her back some of her mobility and independence. There are a whole lot of issues at work here, but I won’t go into them here because, well, OY!

My mother did come through the surgery ok, thankfully. Now it is a matter of her walking around and doing physical therapy. She is back home now, under the watchful eye of the rest of my family. Being the one that moved away means I can’t participate as much in watching out for them as I would like.

While waiting with my family on Wednesday while she was in surgery. I worked on this:

You knew there had to be another sock coming along if I finished up two pairs in rapid succession. The yarn is from Dragonfly Fibers and the colorway is Starry Night. I am doing the basketweave pattern again. While working on these, one of the women waiting for the outcome of a different surgery came up and asked, “Excuse me, but what are you making?”

“I’m knitting a sock.”

“Do you make all of your socks?”

“Not all of them, but a good number of them. I made these,” raising my pants leg to show the Tannenbaums.

“Look at this, Jack. Isn’t that something?”

It was smile-inducing for me, especially with how someone reacted to my knitting during my last time at that hospital’s waiting room. The lady went on to say that she doesn’t know many men who knit, those that do really like it. I could do nothing but agree with her.

BTW, there is another pair of socks on the needles, but I can’t show you them. Why? Because they are the prototype for the Winter pattern for Sheila’s sock club. You are just going to have to wait on them.

Copyright 2009 by G. P. Donohue for textillian.com

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Reference

First, thank you for all of well wishes for our anniversary. Mr. Penney and I had our quiet celebration of exchanging gifts that we agreed not to get each other and dinner out at our favorite local restaurant. (The gift agreement was made after we had each already gotten the other’s gift.) This is what Mr. Penney got me. Sweet!

I just finished the Christmas shopping today, sent out the Christmas cards yesterday, and will start making the Christmas cookies tomorrow. I put the lights and pine roping out front a little over a week ago, and this past weekend, Mr. Penney and I got our try and decorated it. (Photos courtesy of Mr. Penney.)

Our Christmas tree

And Bogey was such a big help!

Santa’s little helper

It all does feel like Christmas now.

As for an update on the sweater (sorry, no pics yet of that,) the knitting is done. After some experimenting with a swatch and my sewing machine, I decided that I need to sew the zipper in by hand, so I am going to sew all of the pieces together, weave in all of the loose ends, wash it, and then sew the zipper in. Hopefully, it will all be done by the end of the year, if not by Christmas. Wish me luck.