Monthly Archives: October 2007

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

Lucky

Posted on by Jean

We have some huge new family news but first a little knitting.  I finished the scarf for my Gram.  This is the yarn and pattern that I bought at Morehouse Farms when I went to meet Jennifer (Major Knitter).  Simple Feather & Fan but I can’t tell you how many times I had to frog back several (once it was about six inches) rows to fix an error.  I even tried once to just drop down the stitches where the repeat error was but I made a bigger mess of it.  Click on the pic for a bigger view.  This merino yarn was SO soft and the colors are beautiful.  Because I used two skeins, I did two rows and then switched skeins so that the color variation would be more even.  There was quite a difference which gives it that striped effect.

Now the big news…

We’d been toying with the idea of getting a companion for Aggie.  We thought about a puppy and then thought we’d look into rescue.  Cavs are such a great dog that there aren’t a lot of them in rescue (well, one is too many, but compared to other breeds there aren’t a lot of them) but I looked anyway.  And then we saw this guy who was rescued by Lucky Star Cavalier Rescues from a Missouri puppy mill.  These two photo were taken after he’d been in rescue care for about a month.

When he was rescued he had a terrible case of mange.  You’ve seen Aggie and other healthy Cavs on Kim’s blog, so you can see how badly he was treated.  He’s also deaf, which no doubt in my mind, is due to ear infection, I could be wrong but it wouldn’t surprise me at all. 

So I wrote to his foster mom and told her we’d love to bring him home and give him the love he needs.  Sadly, she wrote back that he was already being adopted.  We wrote back and forth a few more times and last Thursday morning must have been our lucky day because I got an email from his foster mom saying that the adoption had fallen through and if we were serious we could have him!  I would have left right then and there but we had Joe’s parent/teacher conference Friday morning.  As soon as that was over I hit the road for the twelve-hour drive through NY, NJ, WV, PA, OH to IN to pick him up.  About halfway there I was thinking, “What the hell am I doing”… do you have any idea how wide PA is?!  It was 730 miles each way… at least 400 of that was PA! lol.

The second I saw him I knew it was worth every single mile and every gallon of gas.  He is the sweetest dog I’ve ever met.  It was a pretty full weekend getting him accustomed to our home but he’s fitting right in.  He’s very skittish.  It’s hard to remember that he’s deaf.  He can hear a loud whistle, shout or when Aggie barks but that’s about it.  Aggie, the priss that she is, growled at him as soon as I brought him in the house but we layed her on her back and let him smell her and she’s been fine since.  Here’s the proof:

We toyed with Texas A&M names like “Bear” for Bear Bryant (a great A&M coach), Kyle for Kyle Field and Sarge for Old Sarge but we couldn’t really name him anything other than “Lucky”, now could we?

His birthday is listed as 2/1/2005 so he’s six months older than Aggie.

I’ll keep you posted on Lucky’s progress. He’s going to be absolutely gorgeous when his coat comes back in and he gains some weight but it doesn’t matter.  He’s such a sweetheart and cuddler I’m completely in love with him already.  Who couldn’t be? Rescues are the best.

Knitting

Everything I’d hoped For….

Posted on by Jean

In a word… FABulous!   I have to say that I wasn’t near as overwhelmed as I thought I’d be but it was grand.  I did wear the Must Have but Holy Smokes… it was HOT!  I thought it was October when I checked the calendar.

I know that I don’t need any more wool but you can’t go to Rhinebeck and not buy *anything*!  I’m pretty sure there’s some rule against that.  I bought some GORGEOUS Duet Yarn from Brooks Farm.  I bought it for a Clapotis (which I saw quite a few of) but we’ll see….  I think the color way I bought was Santa Fe, but I’m not really sure and it doesn’t say on the label.  I love it though.  It’ll go great with jeans.

Here’s the rest of my loot (the Duet Yarn is in this photo as well and it’s a little more true in color):

I’m a sucker for all things Scottish so how could I go wrong with the picture of Scottish Black face sheep with a Scottish castle in the background?  There’s a Fiber Trends pattern for a special little dog and two bags of Bluefaced Leicester roving.  After all, it was the featured breed and I’m pretty sure there’s another rule about going to the wool fest and not buying the *featured* breed.  Am I right?  Dan bought it and that’s all that matters.

I printed out my banner on some ink jet fabric and ironed it on to a black tote bag.  I figured this would help anyone give a shout out to me. 

I got to see Kim (Woolen Rabbit) again and she introduced me to quite a few bloggers during the meet up.  I failed to get any photos at the meet up but I’m sure they’ll be all over blogland.  I especially enjoyed meeting Diane (Indigodi), Carol (Carole Knits) and Chris (Wooly Buns) ( and no, none of those butt shots are mine).  There were others, but I told you, I’m horrible with names!  I really enjoyed meeting everyone.

Knitting

FINALLY!! Rhinebeck!

Posted on by Jean

I’ve waited for this moment since I first heard about Rhinebeck.  I think that was at least seven years ago.  I never really thought I’d get to go and now here I am… living only an hour away in the beautiful Hudson River Valley!  You might remember my somewhat bitter post three years ago and then the big tease when I thought I’d get to go last year but Dan had that little detour to Afghanistan…  Well it’s finally my turn, Baby!

I missed the whole Blogger Bingo thing so I won’t get to play but please holler howdy if you see me and my clan (they’ll be with me on Saturday but I’ll probably be flying solo on Sunday).  Is there some big blogger meet-up or something?  I don’t want to miss out on that for snoozing too!

Here’s what I looked like today and am pretty sure I’ll look about the same this weekend:

Say HI!  I’m terrible with names and faces so if I don’t recognize or remember you right away, I’m not a snob, just a bad memory.

Friends, Gardening

Major Fun!

Posted on by Jean

Okay.  I know it’s been two weeks but that’s not to say I didn’t have a blast meeting up with Jennifer (Major Knitter)!  I did.  In fact, I hope there are many meet-ups now that we’re only an hour and a half apart.  Plenty of knitterly joints in between and around us both.  We’ve been web pals for quite a while.  It’s so funny to walk into the coffee shop and spot her immediately.  I got to see her beautiful sample of the Dale baby sweater class she’s going to.  So fun to be with people who understand your passion.  It’s even funnier when people are looking with a crooked eyebrow trying to figure out what’s going on.  lol.   Just as many of you promised, Morehouse was FABulous!  It’s very dangerous that it’s only an hour and twenty minutes from my door.  As you can see, Jennifer did some damage:

I put myself on a small budget after the shock of the move and finding out exactly how much wool I already have.   I bought some gorgeous soft pink merino for a hat and booties for my neighbor (due with her 5th in a week) and two different varigateds for scarves.  One for me and one for my Gram.  The one for Gram is a simple Feather and Fan pattern but it’s kicking my butt.  I’ve had to rip back about five inches once already and last night I found another big mistake about the same distance down.  Tried to just rip down the stitches that were messed up…. yeah… made a bigger mess.  I finished the hat and booties within a couple of days of getting home.  I forgot to take a photo before giving it to my neighbor so I’ll try to remedy that by the next post.  I’ll hopefully have Gram’s scarf done by then to show that to you as well.

I think my favorite part of the visit with Jennifer was sitting down and really getting to chat over lunch.  It’s fun being around all that wool but a little distracting and SO overwhelming.  What the heck am I going to do at Rhinebeck in two weeks?  I still can’t believe I get to go finally.  I’ve wanted to for years and now I’m so close to it I can drive each day to visit.  Wheee!!!  I’m not going to buy much (really) but I just can’t wait for the experience.

Have I mentioned that I love the Hudson Valley?  It’s gorgeous here.  The leaves are really starting to change.  I went apple picking at Applewood Orchards with my neighbor.  So much fun.

Speaking of my neighbor… she has these flowers in her flower bed:

You all came through for me so I thought I’d give it a shot for her.  Anyone know what these are?  She wants to find out if they are perennials or not so she doesn’t yank up something she shouldn’t.   I planted over 350 bulbs the other day.  After all that work and the blisters on my hands now, our flower border better look like the Keukenhof in Holland next year!! lol.

I hope you all have a great Columbus Day weekend!  Dan has tomorrow off so we’re going to head to lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.  I’ve gotten very into Puerto Rican cooking (been watching Daisy Cooks on PBS) and I want to hit some of the Latino markets down there.  Then we’re taking the boys camping right near our home for a couple of nights.  Sunday night we have a camp cabin mini reunion for Daniel in Connecticut.  He can’t wait to see his pals again.  He’s been having a pretty hard time here at school so far but the school is wonderful!  They have a great team working with him and helping him through things and most importantly, keeping in constant contact with me to let me know what’s going on.  Have a great long weekend!