heylucy

kibbles n bits

That's my new nickname. The husband has been saying it all day, "kibbles n bits, kibbles n bits".

I don't think I'm too much of a drama queen, but it was all about the drama here this morning. Our neighbor's dog got out of their yard somehow, and as I was leaving for work, I saw it in front of their yard. I pulled my car out our gate, and got out to close it behind me. I looked over to see if their gate was unlocked, so I could let him back in and saw that it wasn't. I didn't go near it, but stayed on our property, and he charge at me, growling, barking and snapping. I was screaming bloody murder, and he nipped me in the leg and grabbed and tore my sweater. I was trying to get back to my car, but he wouldn't let me anywhere near it. From out of nowhere came a Highway Patrol, and she started screaming into her loudspeaker. That startled the dog a bit, and I was able to run to my car. She pulled her car in between my car and the dog. I don't know what would have happened, if not for her!

She called every emergency service within twenty miles, I think, because within a few minutes there was a fire truck, a couple more highway patrol cars, the local sheriff and an ambulance in front of the house. So I was a shivering mass of nerves, and somehow ended up in an ambulance, headed for the city. They even made me lay on the gurney and strapped me in. So embarrassing. I spent a couple hours in the emergency room, getting the bite cleaned out and getting a tetunus shot and some antibiotics. I'll spare you pictures of the bite, it's just a bloody scrape, really and a little puncture wound. I didn't need stitches, and it could have been so much worse. The worse thing is the emotional trauma. I love dogs, and dogs usually love me :o). I've never seen anything like that before and I've never been so terrified. Sadly, the dog is going to have to be put down. It killed a sheep a few months ago. I don't think I could handle seeing it again, and felt myself tense up when we pulled in the driveway after getting back from the hospital. I know that animal control captured the dog, and I'm not sure if they're going to observe him for a while to see if he has rabies or what. The neighbors are extremely sorry, and offering to pay for everything. They say he's had his rabies shot, so hopefully I won't have to get the rabies vaccine, which the nurse told me, no less than 15 times, is a series of 5 REALLY BIT SHOTS. 15 times she told me.

But hey, I got Friday off, so now I'm enjoying a 3-day weekend!

Favorite Things Wednesday

Favorite things this week:

The latest issue of Vogue Knitting. I couldn't help myself last night, and started knitting the roses pillow:

I know, I know, enough with the pink already (speaking of pink, look at this! I love it!). Anyway, two roses down, 23 to go. I haven't seen a lot of knitted flowers that I'm crazy about, crochet ones are usually so much nicer, but we all know about my crochet skills. These I like, though. They're made with a clever little technique where you twist the left needle 360 degrees every six stitches. I've not seen anything like that before, but it makes them all fluffy and ruffle-y. I think I'm going to make the pillow itself in green. One complaint about the magazine this month, however. Why the big to-do about yet another Celebrity Scarves book? Whoopdy-do, you're famous and you managed to knit a garter stitch scarf, how impressive. At least this one is for a good cause, but I'd rather just donate $20 to breast cancer research then waste it on this book. Okay, I'm moving on and not going to worry about it anymore.

I just finished reading this book. Why did it take me so long to get to it? Wow is all I can say, it's one of the best books I've read this year. Go read it yourself.

Also on a reading note, I also read The Mermaid Chair, by Sue Monk Kidd. This one I didn't like so much. I just can't relate to a woman who has an affair because she is feeling some sort of un-fulfillment with her life. I loved her previous novel, The Secret Life of Bees so much, that it made my disappointment all the greater.

A new blog discovered this week: Plump Pudding. Adorable stuff, and I love the colors she uses.

And I'm listening to:

David Gray, who I'm actually not too familiar with, but I must prepare, because my lovely friend Naz invited me to go with her to his show tomorrow night.

Plush Rush

No pink in sight today!

I was lucky enough to turn in my application on time and be accepted to participate in Plush Rush.

There are a lot of really great artists, I think I'm kidding myself that anyone will buy my little monsters, but I decided to be brave and send them out there into the big bad world. I'm making three little guys similar to Mort, Sally and Mimi. So bookmark the Plush Rush site, and be there when the sale starts on December 3rd!

Wow, I sound like some kind of badly written ad campaign.

I think this is turning into the pink blog

This weekend was all about food. I made risotto with prosciutto and peas Saturday night, nicoise salad for lunch Sunday and a big pot of minestrone soup Sunday night. The best, though, was breakfast:

I made ginger scones and lavender lemon mint tisane from Teaism. I was even nice enough to make the manly man some waffles, because we all know manly men don't eat scones and tea, but manly food like waffles. So he had a plain white manly plate loaded with waffles and syrup, and I enjoyed my scones and tea on pretty pink and red vintage china, and everyone was happy.

I was also busy with the crafty stuff this weekend:

I like cruising the aisle at the hardware store with all the little drawers of bolts and screws and doodads. There is some pretty cool stuff there. This is a picture frame for my desk at work, which started out as your standard brown pressed wood clipboard. I painted it pink, drilled a hole in each bottom corner, and inserted long bolts with spacers so it would stand up. I added some printed vellum for a photo mat, and a little plastic flower thingie from the hardware store. If I got ambitious, I could have plexiglass cut to fit, with matching holes drilled for the bolts, to protect the photograph. I may make a bunch of these for Christmas gifts, so I may have to look into that. It can also be hung on the wall with the hole in the clip part, so shorter bolts would be needed for that situation, obviously. I'd also like to try spray painting the metal bits black, particularly if I paint the board a darker or bolder color. I'm going to use this one to hold a black & white picture from my sister's wedding.

Pink Baby

All done! It's soft and cuddly, and I'm excited to give it to the new baby next weekend. I'll try to take a picture of her in it, but I think it may be too gigantic for that yet. I knitted the 12 month size, but it's sort of coat-like, so she should be able to wear it for awhile once she's not swimming in it.

I really like Debbie Bliss designs, but I still think the patterns are not very well edited. I checked the pattern revisions page again, and it looks as if all the mistakes I found in this sweater are corrected there. The explanation at the top of the page says (and I quote), " These are the corrections for books that, due to printing errors, have unfortunately given incorrect instructions." Printing errors? I don't think it was a printing error when you didn't include any instructions for finishing the pockets, or that one row where you forgot to mention doing the last cable. Humph. Just admit you made some mistakes and check stuff more carefully next time please. Okay, I'm done berating the knitting editors.

You know what I love? When you do a spell check, and there are no errors found.

You know what else I love? When people leave comments, even if they just say hi.

Baltimore Printing Press No. 9

A few years ago, when I was just getting into bookbinding, I snatched this tiny letterpress off eBay. And then it sat on a shelf. I think it's time to dust it off and see what I can do with it. It looks as if it came with just about everything I need to get started, except that the ink roller (I have no idea if that is the correct technical term) looks as if something has been gnawing on it. I'm finding some helpful resources on the internet, starting with Briar Press. My little press is just big enough to print business cards, although I think I could sneak a postcard-sized card in there as well.  Ooh the possibilities!
 

Favorite Things Wednesday

This week I like:

Rooibus Chai, with lots of half-n-half. Warm in the winter, over a big glass of crushed ice in the summer.

Download Bear Dog.MOV
My goofy, happy dog (and the fact that I learned how to upload movie files-Quicktime is needed to view). This dog is always like this, wagging his whole rear end from joy. He usually whacks himself in the face with his tail, he gets so excited. The reason for his happiness in this movie? I was looking at him and saying his name. That's all it takes.

Autumn leaves and rainy days.

For Yvonne

This is for you Yvonne! I hope it works. Yvonne sent me an e-mail asking for help with the kwtog stitch in the ruffles scarf. Essentially, that scarf is just a bunch of short-rows, so if you find yourself making something with short rows, here's what you do.

Download knitting.MOV

I took some pictures, and I hope you can see what you need to pick up:

Picture #1: This is the stitch that you are going to kwtog (Knit wrap and wrapped stitch together)
Picture #2: Pick up the yarn wrapped around the the base of the stitch onto your right needle
Picture #3: Pick up the stitch itself, just as you normally would to knit, and wrap your yarn around your right needle, pulling it through the stitch and the loop (I usually have to use my thumb to help the wrap stitch up a bit)
Picture #4: The finished stitch, which looks like a K2tog.

Do Over

My first attempt at complicated charted patterns (from Scarf Style, the Backyard Leaves pattern):

It started out fine, once I figured out if I was starting with a right song or wrong side row. You can see a nicely formed leaf at the beginning. But then it all went terribly wrong, and I'm still not sure what happened. So I'm taking it to my lunchtime knitting class today, so I can show my students that I make lots of mistakes and am always ripping and starting over. For some reason, they have a great fear of undo-ing.

Anamaria took some really lovely pictures of the goods I sent her, and now I'm not as embarrassed as I was. The bag looks much cuter in her photos.

I wore my pink ruffles scarf yesterday, and while most comments were very complimentary, one person said that it looked like intestines.

No self portrait today, I don't feel like it.

Mind your Waist

I'm nearly finished with the pink sweater, but since pictures of random knitted pieces are boring, I'll spare you until it's completely done and sewn together. Instead, I'm just breezing in and out today, and leaving you with a picture of my kitchen wall:

A philosophy to live by.