Life just keeps on going…

It has been almost two years since I have posted here. Some might believe this is because nothing important has been happening. Others know that so much has happened that it is hard to choose what I will write about.

I have been doing a lot of knitting. Some of it has been for family and friends.

Some of it has been for designers like Donna Druchunas.

I don’t know where all the pictures have gone!

A lot of the time has been spent with the grandchildren.

Tesla

Charlie

Tesla looks so much like her father! . It is truly a delight watching them learn and interact with each other and with me. I like being able to see them interact at daycare via the internet. They are beautiful children, so much like their parents. (I am not at all biased!) They both are real hams when the camera comes out, and they love watching videos of themselves.

Tesla and Zaius

Zaius

Their parents up and got married on Halloween at a local haunted house. Neither family heard about it until the deed was done. We couldn’t be more pleased. I have considered Hilary a daughter for several years. It is fun to have the legal stamp!

I had planned to have my Etsy store opened by now. I am accumulating handcrafted jewelry inventory, I have supplies for making more. My body is not cooperating. I had cataract surgery on November 4. My vision is still changing. I may have to have the other eye done sooner than planned. Then I dislocated my right shoulder a week ago, and again on Sunday. It is one of the most painful events I have experienced. It is really hard to create with only one hand/arm, especially your non-dominate hand. We will see what the doctor says after the muscles calm down. The MS symptoms come and go, but nothing major on that front. I hope it stays that way!

Sooooo that is a brief update. I promise it will not take two years to get back here!

I try

I try to post, but life keeps getting in the way. While that is no excuse, (I know plenty of bloggers post through floods and hurricanes) it is what it is.

We attended Tesla’s first birthday party at her other grandmother’s house. People were fun, food was good and the baby was ADORABLE! She doesn’t crawl, she uses one leg to scoot her bum over to where she wants to be. So funny to watch. She had her very own cake.

And she often has a serious look on her face. She does smile and laugh, but when she is pondering the world…

Then I saved my energy for Sock Summit 2011. That was held here in Portland over the weekend of my 59th birthday. I met so many wonderful people. I attended a few classes and learned a lot! I also got thoroughly exhausted. At least the weather was nice and I didn’t melt. (I also bought more yarn, but don’t tell anybody).

August was all about the house. Since the MS troubles got worse a couple of years ago, the housework has gotten away from me. I did what I could, and then I called a local service and they came in and did a deep clean. The kitchen and baths sparkle. The rest of the house is better. They will be back to do the carpets and some other things I need done.

Through it all, I have been knitting. There was a pair of socks for Tesla.

And a pair for me.

I am also working on a baby sweater

And a shawl!

All in all, I’VE BEEN BUSY THIS SUMMER!

I’ve finally realized that life doesn’t slow down when you get older, it whizzes by, and if you aren’t careful you can miss a lot!

 

No knitting here today

You may or may not remember that I had a virus a while back.  Well either it is back with a vengeance, or I have a new one.  You know the drill; runny nose, sore throat, body aches, sleep problems.  I just want to curl up and be pampered.  But this is real life. It’s just not going to happen.  For one thing, Hub doesn’t feel any better than I do.  And, as he is very quick to remind me, HE still goes to work everyday.

I haven’t been able to convince him that sometimes it is better to just hide and let your body work at getting over what ever bug you are dealing with.  I don’t even try to talk to him about the poor etiquette involved in sharing said bug.

The puppies seem to know what I’m talking about.  I was cold.  I was curled up with an old crocheted afghan.  Tina joined me.  WARM!

I spent the morning reading other people’s blogs and twitter feeds.

I did NOT wash dishes!

I did NOT do laundry!

I did NOT clean the very dirty, puppy-slimed floors!

I sat.  It is now almost time for hub to come home from spreading  his version of this virus, and still I sit.  I think I will open a can of soup for dinner 😉 !

I did go outside for a while today.  There has been digging going on.  The pups come in with muddy feet and noses.  I needed to investigate.

They are digging to CHINA!!!!

Each hole is 12 to 18 inches deep!  They are in a cluster in the side yard.

I know these are the holes the pups have dug.

Then there are these.

These are mounds left by some other enterprising mammal.  Maybe the pups aren’t trying to dig to China after all.  I have not seen these other mammals (and they really must be mammals, right?) but it could be that Ike and Tina smell them and hear them and just want to play!

While I was out I discover that we also have fungi.

There are several clusters all around the house.  I picked this one to dry because it was huge and pretty.

Tina lives here, too

A lot of my post have plenty of pictures of Ike.  Most of that is that he is more mellow and is still more often. Then we have Tina, the athletic, the beautiful, the BRAT!  Tina really is my troublemaker.  As I wrote that last sentence, I had to stop to respond to a crash in the kitchen.  My fault, I know. I left the platter with the leftover pot roast on the counter.  Tina knocked the whole thing on the floor. Fortunately the way things landed on the platter it was salvageable. I want to know, is she reading my mind and knowing I’m writing about her?

The pups went to the vet for more shots a week ago.  They get weighed every time they go in.  Tina now weighs 21 lbs. and is beautiful.  She started obedience classes and is doing pretty well, even though she is the youngest dog in the group.  I must admit I have never taken a dog to obedience class before.  Usually I have only one pup at a time and they are with me 24/7.  With two pups, they spend more time with each other and it is harder to get them to pay attention.  It is working, but work is the operative word.  The other issue I didn’t give enough weight to was my stamina.  Jethro  was a pup 14 years ago and while I was probably starting to have symptoms from the MS, my energy levels were much higher than now.

Tina doesn’t care about any of that.  She just wants loving, on her terms.  She really is much more delicate than her brother, and is much more impish as well.

I am NOT cooking Thanksgiving Dinner this year.  While it is a job I enjoy, we have been invited to join our older son and his family at H’s mother’s.  Here it is  Sunday, and I don’t have any idea what to take.

Other than knitting, of course.  I have a pair of pants for Tesla.The colorway is ‘Froggie’  from KSD.

And a pair of socks in ‘Iris’.

These match the dress

There are other things on the needles that I can’t show right now.

WHAT WAS THAT CRASH!!!!!  bye!

Stitches and more stitches

I have been working on several projects lately.  One project is completed, a pair of socks for an undisclosed family member. The green of this yarn is so cheerful.

It is too bad I don’t know how to correct the color the camera sees. 😉

One other pair of socks is in yarn I got as a Christmas gift last year.  The colors really remind me of the vineyards where I was a teen.

Again my photographic skills are lacking.

This yarn is going to be something for me.

This is from KSD and I just love it.

One of the other projects is a hat using Jared Flood’s Habitat pattern in KnitPicks Swish.

Again the color isn’t true, but the stitches are great.  It is a fun fast knit.

One of the main problems I have had with my knitting lately (besides having more ideas than time or energy) is how difficult it is to knit with a lap full of puppy.  They are getting big and heavy. They entertain me as much as each other.

Double the fun!

It is official.  Getting two pups was a good idea.  There is no way that I could keep one pup as busy as the second pup can.  They wear each other out!!!  They wear me out, too.  But it is a pleasant fatigue.They are learning very quickly which toys are theirs and which are MINE!  So far the substitution game is working fairly well.  They are also learning how to put their toys away at night.  I don’t know how long that will last, but it is fun for now.

On the down side, Ike does like yarn by itself and made into things.I found him with this,And one of my favorite afghans mysteriously travels to the floor when I leave the room!  😉

The dogs have also taken over some of the furniture!  We have three tables with a low shelf that the pups feel make perfect dens.  After several days of conflict, and in the spirit of picking our battles, we have removed anything we value from these bottom shelves.  This is how they are now being used.

Knitting has been occurring, but no pictures at present. they will be here soon!

Smarter than you think

Puppies can show some amazing signs of intelligence! Ike and Tina are putting to use a lot of the toys that Jethro only used for a short period of time.  There’s the nylon teething ring that Jethro only looked at.  These youngsters use it for tug-of-war!  Kongs stuffed with treats keep them busy for 1/2 an hour.

But the puzzle cube!!!!!

The first time they made a treat fall out…oh my, weren’t they clever!  They had the world by the tail!  Of course if one notices something, the other has to have a nose in.  

They have also figured out the dog door works both ways!  It is a little harder to go out than to come in, but they’ve got it down.  When they get too rowdy I can say ‘take it outside’ and they head out the dog door!  Of course they only make one lap running around the yard before they come back in, but they know what I expect them to do!

They are exhausting, but they are so loving and so much fun!!!

Kids just wanna have fun…

The pups are keeping me on my toes.  I have to keep them from getting bored without wearing myself out.  That can be a hard balance to achieve.  Sometimes they keep each other busy.  Ike will be chewing on his kong and Tina will come up and grab the tip of his tail. Then she will pull him five feet across the yard, before he decides enough is enough.  Then he chases her around the trees and through the ivy.

The little things like learning to come when called by name, and potty training are happening.  They are not acquainted with the pet door yet, so the potty training depends on me.  When I can’t be paying close attention they are in a play yard in the family room.  They are going to be indoor/outdoor dogs but they are not quite ready to make it outdoors on their own.  I will be glad not to have to pick up wee pads though! ;^D

I’m back to the sleeves on my test knit for KnitQuest.  Other test knitters have had to tink quite a bit so  I hope to learn from their experiences.  This IS a fun knit, but it has taken much longer than anticipated, partly due to the xxl size I’m knitting.  I’m still in love with the yarn, but it is a lot of PURPLE !

My sewing/crafts room is coming along.  I can actually do things in there now.

My library is fairly extensive, but it is getting sorted and organized.  The books dedicated to just knitting are moving into the living room with a lot of the yarn.  That is where I usually knit so it seemed logical.  The Ikea shelves I received for my birthday help tremendously in there.

Ike and Tina

After several discussions that included Fred and Ethel, Elvis and Marilyn, Oreo and Cookie we decided that Ike and Tina FIT!

This is Ike.  He has a large white spot on the back of his neck.  He also wears a blue collar!! Doesn’t that make things easy?

This is Tina.  She has white most of the way around her neck and she wears a red collar.  Isn’t she clever?

They both like the big orange ball, especially since they saw me play with it.  They think anything I like (or wear) is pretty neat!

They are quiet at night now, and they love to run around outside after they have been fed.  They immediately take care of personal business and then they PLAY!

So far they have not discovered that I twiddle threads.  This project has remained safe.

This is a test knit for KnitQuest.

They have also not found this pair of merino/cashmere socks.

They went to the vet for the first time, and got their first shot, free samples and TOOTHBRUSHES!  Of course I get to teach them what that’s all about. (And after spending over $1000 on Lucy’s teeth I WILL)

So I have been busier than planned for the last week!

Family additions

We got puppies.  I may have mentioned I was looking for a puppy.This is our new little girl.  Her white collar goes across the whole back of her neck.

Here is our little boy.  He has pink on either side of his nose, and only a patch of white on the back of his neck

I know some say they will keep each other busy.  Others say it is double trouble.  I don’t know.  It is too early to say.

I had picked him and was holding him, talking to him.  I was pretty sure I wanted a male and he was the better of the two in the litter.  His brother was very timid.  This guy was very attentive and interested.  I really fell for his face and his curiosity.

Then while I was sitting there on the grass she came and laid down against me.

She put her head in my lap and just looked at me as if to say “I’m going too, right?”  She passed the cradle test and was very interested in my voice.

What a quandary!!!  I hadn’t planned on getting a pup today!  I didn’t have a kennel with me.  I hadn’t told hub to prepare.  We hadn’t baby-proofed an area.  And it was 400 miles from home.  I couldn’t just come back tomorrow.

I couldn’t choose which pup!  So of course I found a box and they both came home with me!

Their mama is very sweet, and I hear dad is too.   They do well together, and Lucy doesn’t seem to be upset in the least.  She sniffs, and lays down.  They sniff her and walk away.

We will see how things progress.  In the meantime, they are napping in the bathroom.