Burt's Very Tough Week

Burt has had a very tough week or so. It all started Thursday the 16th. Momma would not feed him as requested through the night. He was scheduled to have all his remaining teeth removed. No midnight snack or breakfast?! What the heck Momma? I vomited in protest. Great way to start a stressful day.

I anxiously dropped him off at the vet. While waiting I saw someone give up their small cage to a tech. I realized it was an expired little one when I saw the woman leave in tears and get a hug outside the doors. It broke my heart.

Once they took Burt back all I could do was go out to my car and cry. My friends said it would be alright and several hours later I went and picked up Burt. 

He sat in front of this water dish for a good 15 minutes. You could tell everything felt weird. But then he got Churus after meds and we had some good sleeping sessions. Eat, take meds, and go back to bed. Mom covered his pillow with a towel to soak up any drool.

We lived with a very dirty chin for a few days.

Being tucked in didn't hurt either.

On the second or third night after surgery his chin was so swollen.

Thanks for staying home with me Momma.

Soon I was able to clean up a bit and my slightly surprised mouth showed up.

Mom took 42 pictures of me cleaning up and only one had my mouth open. My momma's photography reflexes are not good!

We started asking if my surgeon was Mike Tyson on this day.

Now I'm just sick of being sick. I want my crunchy food back, but I'm glad my abscessed teeth are gone but I'm done with my whole mouth healing thing.

Two more weeks of stitches but less than a week to get my regular food back.

 

 

Checking In

The weather is turning cooler and we are so thankful for it. So I guess it is time for a report of some of the things we did with our summer. 

I knit Hubby some socks. I enthralled the anesthesiologist at my colonoscopy by knitting while all gowned up. I did not knit while waking up so that is good.  

I started a shawl.

I finished some cool socks for me.

I started (and finished) another pair for me.

We had boba at a yarn festival at a wildlife park.

I bought yarn. Yes I know this is really not new for me.

I got to try out weaving so I figured D needed a really neat bookmark. I should have bought one too.

We got nifty little keychain dice holders with the dice included. I have always wanted a D20 dice.

We started going to estate sales and I found awesome pyrex dishes.

And a very pretty lap quilt for 
Burt.

I am learning how to do a knitted I-cord edge and now all my shawls will have this edge. Or at least the colorwork ones. You can hide your ends in there without having to weave them in!

I bought more yarn that Burt said he would model. 

I bought more books to feed my nostalgia. The Vogue Knitting Sock book especially is stomping up and down on my nostalgia button. 

I matched my prettiest and most unique shawl to my only dress for a wedding. (I didn't get to wear the shawl because ABQ in September is still just lovely, but not shawl weather.)

I made myself a birthday cake. Never trust YouTube recipes. This one overflowed the pan while baking and took double the amount of time to bake. 

It did taste lovely. I would make it again and set the timer for longer to not keep interrupting the baking.

Yes I am so basic that vanilla cake and vanilla ice cream are my favorites. I wouldn't say no to chocolate chip cookie dough though.

Been Knitting

In part of my book buying binge I found some colorwork patterns. My colorwork has never been run through its paces so I watched a few videos on how to capture my floats in the back and tried it out. 

While this is adorable it is not needed in 90 degree weather and is lacking a mate. Yeah the contrast needs to be stronger too. But not awful for trying things out.

The floats don't look too bad either. 

I even seem to have recaptured some of my sock knitting mojo. And to think I used to hate the color orange. Now I love seeing the bright I demand your attention color. I finished these and wore them at home when I had to do some medical prep and had to drink cold stuff over an extended period of time. The orange helps mentally to keep you warmer, I can envision my feet wrapped in little toasty not too hot fires. 

And speaking of socks that make me smile. I made my own rainbow socks. Now Hubby and I each have a pair. I knit my in the opposite color projection from his so we can tell them apart.

My nostalgic phase continues with patterns. I cast on a Color Affection shawl. I remember wanting to knit that pattern so bad but held off since I didn't have much experience yet. I finally got on the bandwagon in 2013. I had such a hard time picking the colors. I went at it as if it was the end of the world if I didn't pick the right ones. Ha! It was gorgeous and Gus especially loved the shawl. 

I am looking forward to having another one that I can see how much I have improved and how much more comfortable with color theory I am. It does not have to be perfect, it never will be perfect. It just has to be enjoyable and loved when it is done. That is good enough.

Knitting on

So yeah I've feeling things here and decided a bit of retail therapy is alright. I'd been feeling nostalgic about my knitting and I think I have reached the phase of what happens if I cannot get this yarn, knitting needles, or thing anymore. I never understood when others lamented yarn being discontinued, now I understand that feeling of loss. We have lost so much. So before some thing have gone I thought they could do a wee stop at my house. I got four skeins of Urth yarns and three of Gusto. Along with a new tape measure, some new needle tips and a new set of sock needles. 

While I was waiting for that to arrive I cast on a sock for Hubby. This is Plymoth Yarns Happy Feet that I received as a gift from a coworker back in New York. I think they will make fine socks for him.

I even started weaving in ends on my True Colors shawl. There are so may ends and I really think I am at least halfway through. But fun fact I discovered today is that my stucco wall works as velcro to hang shawls for pretty pics. I think this is one of my favorite shawls that I have made. 

Once my new sock needles showed up I had to cast on some Gusto yarn I bought a while back. I was a bit disappointed with the coloring of this yarn as the color is not supersaturated, there is white peaking out all the time, but when I was looking at yarn the other day this is a gradient and I just need to see this knit into socks for me. I think maybe the white will give it a bit of tweed effect. Guess we will know soon.

Burt would like you to know fireworks are stupid. Under the bed is Ok if Momma lies there and pets my fur though.

May your knitting help you find peace and joy. 

In Love

I am in love with a neighbor's rose bush.

And to think I never liked the color orange before a became a knitter. 

Yeah Momma it was yarn that made you love orange. Not a handsome fuzzy boy. Right?

Sometimes you just have to look at the sky and fall in love with it too.

 And sometimes you have to look at a beautiful "coworker" and think hey we are doing ok, in this moment.

Knitting and Retail Therapy

Burt and I have been diligently knitting away. We got back into sock knitting since I needed something small to work on. Shawls are nice but big, especially shawls with three colors to carry around.

I managed to finish a project too. Momma now has rainbow socks to match Daddy's rainbow socks. He is actually wearing his pair today.I was just so thrilled with the way his turned out that I decided I needed a pair too. I love them so much. 

We went to a used book store a while back and I was lamenting not getting some knitting books back in the day. The thought occurred to me that I can indeed still go book shopping at Powell's Books, I just have to wait a bit to get them. OK fine Joyful Colorwork Socks is not a back in the day book, it is new but hey we all need joyful socks right now.

It used to be I had to want to knit a few patterns before I would buy a book. This is how I missed out on some great books, this time I picked some inspiration only books and one came with a bonus leaflet pattern. Thanks unknown knitter for weeding this book and bonus leaflet from your collection into mine.

I pulled out some totes from my yarn collection and it made me so happy to have color palettes to play with. I mean really how beautiful is all that yarn?

So I had to go out and add to the collection. I wanted to support a local yarn store and avoid tariffs. While I love color, I am learning I need more neutrals to work with also. But that orange? I had to have it.

I had been thinking and I really wanted another skein of that turquoise yarn I bought a while back. Alas the local yarn store didn't have any more so maybe a little online therapy was needed. And I really needed a few more state license plate stitch markers. I now have four of the six states we have lived in.  I could no longer resist a deck of colorwork cat patterns. Looks like a kitty cowl or mitts is in my future. I would love to get better at colorwork.

And yet here I am again knitting a plain sock with fantastic orange yarn. Some things and people are wonderfully consistent. Like new yarn just jumps on to my needles sometimes. Don't worry Burt has approved new sock knitting and current shawl knitting. But I will talk about that one next time.