kmkat and her kneedles

Ser Percy on the hunt.

See Perceval The Energetic is visiting for the week while a Younger Son does a storage network install at the FAA in Oklahoma City. Ser Percy is very aware of our two cats, and our two cats stay well away from him.

 

 
On Monday I was winding yarn and sorting and stowing it when Ser Percival showed up.

 

He was intent in the way that only a pit bull on the trail of something can be.

 

I wondered if there were a mouse somewhere in this end of the room. There is
an assortment of paint cans under a table just out of camera range to the right,
making a dandy hiding place for a small rodent.

The object of Percy's attention was in this nook between the wall, the file cabinet,
a stack of yarn-filled plastic bins, and the table. What could it be?

 

 
Hannibal was smugly snuggled onto towel that had fallen into the nook.
He knew he was safe. I could hear him saying, Nyah nyah nyah. Dog!

It was 20 40 years ago today!

(Listen to it twice. PRESTO! 40 years.)

 

So we celebrated. I got out our wedding album, and we and Younger Son looked at the pictures of the day. Then we listened to Billy Idol singing White Wedding while we ate our pancakes and bacon.

In the 20 seconds it took me to get the wedding album, Ser Percy found my yarn.

That's most of two skeins of Shibui Silk Cloud; 60/40 mohair/silk. 
 Have you ever untangled Kid Silk Haze? This is the same, only silkier.

I am making a Multigrain scarf* as a Christmas present for Elder Son's next-door neighbor, who has been such a good friend and helper and welcomer to him in Sioux Falls. (I almost said "elderly neighbor", but then I remembered that she is only a couple years older than I. Oops.)

 

We cover the entire spectrum of music.

 

 

* I just rechecked the pattern. I think I may have only gotten 2 skeins of Pebble instead of 4 as required. Another order going in. Damn. 

Random because I am lame.

I haven't done the mutterings for awhile.

1. Onion :: cry.
2. Greek :: salad.
3. Construct :: -ion.
4. Crunch :: time.
5. Bottom :: feeder.
6. Cream :: cheese.
7. Slamming :: crowd-surfing.
8. Jerk :: chicken. I seem to have food on the mind this morning.
9. Closed :: mind.
10. Texture :: -d stitches.

* * * * *

Younger Son sent me a photo that a friend had taken of Ser Percival The Energetic.

Look at the size of that mouth. Now imagine your leg in there. Beware the pit bull.

* * * * *

Smokey figured out that it was the 20+ year-old sunscreen I used on Saturday that had caused the allergic reaction and made my eyes swell to monster size. So much for trying to use up old stuff -- that sunscreen is going in the trash. I don't look quite as bad as I did on Sunday, but I would still scare small children. Sheesh.

* * * * *

Earlier this week I had to drive through Lindstöm. Remember Lindström? Anyway, I got myself a small Blizzard at the DQ (mint chocolate chip, thanks for asking) and looked for a shady place to park while I ate it. (I hate having to get out of the car. Drive-through, every time.) A block or so later I found a cemetary, lots of shade. Perfect.

As I drove around looking for my ideal spot -- level, shady, not too obvious -- I came across this tombstone.

The inscription says, "T-REX / Made by Frank".

 

T. Rex says, "Whachoo lookin' at, mofo?"

* * * * *

In other Lindstrom Dairy Queen-related news: last weekend Smokey gave a co-worker a ride home to Lindstrom after work. During the ride, co-worker disclosed that Robin Williams had been spotted at the DQ earlier this summer. What was Robin Williams doing in a tiny rural village in Minnesota? Presumably, the same thing as Ozzie Ozbourne, Eric Clapton, and any number of other celebs. 

* * * * *

Have I been knitting? Yes. Have I been taking pictures of my knitting? No.

I have been busily making fingerless gloves to sell at the farmer's market later this summer and fall in support of the new library. The library building committee is sponsoring the market and gets the booth fees. They also have a table to sell dog blankets and other crafts, all proceeds going to the building fund.

I finished my third pair yesterday, then discovered that Ser Percy had snatched a glove from the second pair -- 100% alpaca*, no less -- and had mangled it a bit. I grumbled and fumed as I wove in the ends on pair #3, then inspected the pair #2 damage more closely. Glove turned out not to be salvageable, but the yarn was. Frogged and 1" reknit so far. Will finish this weekend.

Damned alpaca-chewing dogs...

 

* Apparently dogs prefer alpaca to wool. Go figger. 

 

 

If this is April, I am doing our taxes. And taking iPhone photos.

Yes, like many of you, I am doing our taxes. This is the first time in years I haven't had to extend them because I was way too busy in March and April to do them. Retirement is sweet.

Beverage for these taxing days:

That's coconut flavored sparkling water on the left, lime on the right.
Lime colada (non-alcoholic, because taxes)!

 

And the hat that is my traditional one for doing the taxes (assuming two years in a row counts as tradition).
Note: my eyes actually point in the same direction. Don't know what was going on here.

 

First blooms of spring, observed outside the government center yesterday
when I turned in my final expense report.

 

Not only did they dismember this stuffed draft-blocker, they later ripped open the garbage bag
where Smokey had put all the pieces. Then they repeated this scene, complete with innocent expressions.

Knitting, reknitting, mending, frogging.

Toward the end of last year I made a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend from some llama yarn she had acquired.

Her dog chewed one.

I fixed it. 

The fixed one looks a little different than the first one, but once they are on the hands they look fine.

::whew::

A couple of years ago I knit a sweater for Ser Percival The Energetic.

It tended to slide down his body, as you can kinda-sorta see above, so he didn't wear it much.

Then Mischa The Rescued Dog got hold of it last fall and chewed up a section of the bottom ribbing. Percy's sweater was embarrassing for him to wear, so Younger Son brought it back to me to fix.

Poor Percy had to endure the brutally cold winter we have had with just his red sweatshirt. Cotton is NOT as warm as wool. I felt badly for the poor pup, but I had too many other knitted projects that were promised.

Until last weekend. I finished my cowl, finished mending the chewed-up fingerless gloves, and turned my needles to Percy's sweater.

First, using some matching sock yarn, I made an I-cord* drawstring for the neck and threaded it through the knitting.

This seemed to work to keep the sweater from slipping down his body. Success!

Tragically, I didn't take any before photos of the chewed-up sweater. What you see below are the after photos.

First, I threaded a US#1 circ through the row of undamaged stitches right about the raggediness. Misha had done a perfect job of chewing ONLY the blue ribbing but leaving the white stripe above it undamaged. What a smart dog!

Then I carefully unraveled the damaged section and machine-stitched the still-intact edges of the ribbing at either side.

Then it was a simple matter to pick up the stitches from the needle onto a US#7 -- what the original sweater was knit on -- and knit an inch of ribbing. After binding off, I sewed both ends of the new ribbing to the original. Close inspection shows that there is something weird about the ribbing in that one spot, but it is almost entirely on the underside of Percy's body**, so I don't think the pooch will have to be embarassed about any other dogs noticing the repair.

 

* Vicki blogged a few months ago about an I-cord maker she had acquired, and a light bulb went off over my head. Such a device would enable me to make the long I-cord for Percy's sweater in a few minutes! I put it on my Amazon wish list and eventually ordered it. Although it took Younger Son and I half an hour to figure out how to make it work, once we got it... we got it!

** I took some photos of the repaired sweater on Percy, but because of where the mended ribbing fell on his body, they all featured his little, er, pecker rather prominantly. You have been spared those photos.

Sunday random.

1. Voice :: activated.
2. Counter :: sales.
3. Marked :: man.
4. Loving :: cuddle.
5. Coat :: fur.
6. Pounce :: cat.
7. Dehydrate :: tomatoes.
8. Desire :: in the elms.
9. Concern :: related.
10. Broth :: chicken.

* * * * *

Now for the truly random...

• I cleaned up one of my email inboxes yesterday. It had over 600 messages; now it has 3. The rest all got filed appropriately or deleted. I feel very good about this.
• One of these days I need to do the same thing with my Gmail inbox, which has 341 messages. At least none of those are unread.
• It was 6 above on Friday. Today the snow was almost melting. I was too warm in my wool sweater.
• High on Wednesday is predicted to be several degrees below zero.
• On a somewhat related note, I am loving this winter. Lots of snow = a gorgeous sight, and ultra cold weather just means piling on the hand-knits. 
• I was discussing this winter with a colleague on a committee last week. We agreed that this is like winters used to be back in the Good Ol' Days.
• Yes, I occasionally find myself being one of those who refer to times past.
• But I still like a real winter. None of this wimpy stuff with not enough snow to keep the septic drain field from freezing, not enough cold weather to be able to wear wool.
• ...and it was uphill both ways.

* * * * *

From Neil Gaiman's blog:

My not being currently on Twitter meant that you did not have to endure any grumbles from me about Federal Express leaving packages at houses they were not addressed to, or, alternately, handing over packages to the US Mail service, who then stoutly maintain that the house I'm in does not actually exist and returned said packages to the sender.

I can sympathize. We ordered a new color laser printer/scanner/fax from Amazon on December 27. FedEx delivered it about January 2 or 3, but left the 70-pound box by the mailbox. Which is ~300 yards away from the house, up the hill and through the woods. I guess I can understand why the delivery person did not want to venture down our semi-plowed driveway, but anyway. Smokey found it a day or two later. This was all during one of our extended periods of below-zero weather. Guess what? The toner cartridges -- all four of them -- were damaged by the cold, so the printer prints really, really badly. 

I contacted Amazon and they will exchange it, but new ones are on back order, yada yada, so the whole process is going to drag on. I predict that at the end of that process, either 1, that item will no longer be avaiilable, or b, the price will have doubled to what it was from any other vendor on the planet.

The alternative is to keep the machine and order new toner cartridges. The three color ones are >$100 each, the black is merely $70. New toner cartridges would cost more the the entire machine.*

::grumble::

Speaking of FedEx, they also decided to leave another package from Amazon at the local post office, who said they sent me a notice -- which I never got.

::grumble x2::

* * * * *

Discussion of all the viewpoints is nice, but when an organization is supposed to stand for something, eventually we have to stop airing our individual viewpoints and decide where we take our stand.

And that is all I have to say about that.

* * * * *

Tomorrow I plan to blog about knitting. Remember knitting? It is a wonderful hobby that we all enjoy, and I have been doing a lot of it. Smallish projects, but still knitting and still enjoyable.

* * * * *

And now, because what good is a blog post without a photo, here is what I was doing at 6:30 tonight.

Percy's and my handknit sweaters were getting acquainted.

 

 

* Writing this made me realize I should recontact Amazon and see if I can get replacement toner cartridges instead of trying to exchange the entire thing. It also made me realize that if I had bought the machine locally (not even possible, and even if it were I would have paid ~4X what I did), I would be dealing with someone I know instead of someone in Cambodia or the Maldives or Tierra del Fuego or wherever Amazon's customer service center is located. Oh, well, first world problem, right?

Ser Percival The Energetic: an album.

We were a bit skeptical when Younger Son and then-gf announced they wanted to get a dog, specifically, a young pit bull they had found at the humane society.

A pit bull? Really?

But Percy has turned out to be a sweet, sweet dog with an engaging personality. He cracks us up an a regular basis.

 

His name should be Earnest. Because he is.

 

Percy gets a new toy.

Oh, boy, a new toy! Better than last week's bone!

 

Tug o' war is one of Percy's favorite games.

 

Is someone eating? Is there any for me?

 

The disemboweling begins.

 

At :08 he charges the camerawoman. That's how he asks me to play tug o' war.

 

Percy disembowels the toy, thoroughly and with great vigor.

 

Later in the day I caught Percy and Misha playing tug o' war.

 

Disembowled. Happily, no actual blood was spilled.

 

Percy takes a nap.

 

After a hard day of play, Percy likes nothing better than
crawling into my lap. For a nap. Eighty pounds of sleeping lap dog. Yup.

 

Percy gets spruced up.

 

 

Percy is very responsive to other dogs, whether live, records, or just a photo.

 

More random.

Elizabeth asked in the comments yesterday whether our heating system couldn't be tweaked to get the maximum heat out of the available water flow. Yes, indeed, the guy who installed it has made at least a dozen trips here to do exactly that. I fear it is as good as it can be. Not perfect, but livable (for us, anyway -- we are adaptable). We will withhold part of the final payment in recompense for the shortfall.

In the meantime, conditions seem to have improved. Still very cold outside, but no wind -- thus, less heat loss through walls and windows.

Based on the anemic flow in the shower the past couple mornings, I have refrained from attempting to wash my hair, fearing that the flow might dwindle to nothing whilst my head was encased in suds. Likewise, I have postponed doing laundry. Forecast is for a warming trend tomorrow through the weekend. I see cleaner days ahead :)

* * * * *

This is the cutest thing EVAH! Got this email from Younger Son this morning:

Subject: Percy is at doggie day care today

With how cold it's been, he hasn't been getting long walks or trips to the dog park lately. Because of this, we dropped him off at doggy day care this morning.

You can watch the live webcam of him here, just scroll down to the "Uptown" pen. They only have one location, in Seward, but three big pens there. He's got his red hoodie on, so you'll know him when you see him.

I'll have that window open on my computer all day... 

* * * * *

My pile of squares for Knitters for Newtown grows apace.

Go ahead, knit a few yourself. Requirements and mailing address are at the link. Deadline is March 31.

 

Why, yes, the dogs had a nice New Year's. too.

On Sunday Matthew came up to the lake for the day and brought along Ser Percival. Percy and Lucy and Misha, our new dog (more on her another day) romped through the house and play-tussled and and play-bowed and played tug-o'-war with doggie toys. They were hilarious and entertaining and overful of energy.

At one point we put the three of them outside onto the deck, from whence they could access the little fenced-in area at the foot of the deck stairs. Misha and Percy wiggled through a small opening and went for a nice runaround across the yard and into the woods and over the hill and across the driveway and through the woods on the other side and through the neighbor's yard and eventually back home. Matthew and I were watching out the window. We saw Misha make a l-o-n-g jump over a gully -- I swear her hang time rivaled Michael Jordan's.

Later, after the dogs were tired and resting comfortably on various soft places about the house, he and I went to New Year's Day gathering of some library friends. We had a lovely time.

We came home. Andrew was visiting a friend in Madison for New Year's; Smokey had worked the night before and would work again that night, so he had slept all afternoon. The three dogs puppies were unsupervised.

::cue ominous music::

What greeted us:

Ruh roh...

   

   

I laughed until tears ran down my face. Sometimes that is all you can do. The yarns had been in a basket on a table in the laundry room, safely behind a closed door (I thought). But one of us (his initials = Matthew) has great difficulty remembering to close doors. I gathered up all the yarn and put it safely out of the way until I could start detangling it.

Oops, I left a tiny bit hanging over the edge of the snack table. Guess what almost happened again.

I spent hours on Monday -- hours that could have been spent productively knitting -- detangling. Still, I was sitting comfortably in my recliner with my audiobook playing (A Feast for Crows, thanks for asking) and playing with yarn, so it could have been worse.

The result.

1. The balls I wound on Monday.
2. The unsalvageable bits.
3. The ball I wound Tuesday morning whilst chatting with Andrew and Smokey.
4. The several yards detangled by Smokey but not wound into a ball yet. (His detangling method differs from mine.) 

The pink and brown yarns are much, much harder because they were still skeined. The other yarns had already been wound into balls; that made them much easier to detangle.

Was/is it worth all the work? Who knows, but I got a pretty darned good blog posst out of it ;-)

That was Christmas.

We spent Christmas day with Alex and Matthew. It was delightful to see them hosting the gathering of our little family. They had clearly put a lot of thought and effort into the day -- food (tossed salad and pad thai -- yummy! I brought dessert), presents (perfect, every one!), and they even got dressed up. Not Smokey nor I nor Andrew; we were all in jeans, although I did wear a handknit scarflet to dress up my sweater.

There was festive dress.

Smokey always wears his Santa hat when he works on Christmas, and he brought it along. In the photo above, Andrew had just attempted -- unsuccessfully -- to put the hat on an attentive but uncooperative Ser Percival, so he donned St. Nick's chapeau himself.

Matthew had recently shaved his head.

Smokey was delighted to get a calendar from Alex. He has always been a big fan of Xena, Warrior Princess. (He was gobsmacked also to receive an automotive code reader, but that is not a particularly photogenic object, being basically just a black box.)

I got tags for my handknit items (sadly, they had not arrived by Christmas) and an iPod dock and a Mac Magic Mouse.

Andrew also got an iPod dock, but I neglected to get a photo. His looks approximately like this:

I had put together a basket containing a couple of beginner's supply kits for Alex. There was a knitter's kit: US#7 Dreamz needles, a ball of dishcloth cotton to learn on, and two skeins of Cascade 220 in soft yellow for a scarf once she has mastered the knit stitch, plus assorted small tools, and a How to Knit pamplet from the The Knitters' Guild of America for when I am not around to help her. The other half of the basket was a beginner's sewing kit -- shears, seam ripper, pins, needles, thread. I have found myself with three sewing machines, and one will be hers. She wants me to teach her to sew and to knit, yay!

Smokey had put together a similar gift for Matthew with assorted tools and gadgets, including a set of lighted jumper cables. Go ahead and laugh, but Matthew was pleased with them; you will wish you had them yourself next time your car will not start on a cold dark night.

Ser Percy's sweater was finally done and presented to Himself.

It fits him pretty well, considering I had no pattern and had very limited access to the actual dog's body for fitting. The next one will be better. Please note Percy's bow tie and Alex's sparkly shoes. It was a very festive day!

* * * * *

I had hoped to finish a pair of fingerless gloves for Alex by Christmas, but it was not to be.

The pattern is Vancouver Fog on Ravelry, the yarn is Knit Picks Andean Dream (alpaca, silk, merino worsted). I bound off the first one tonight and cast on the second. They go very quickly except for the idiot who crosses cables the wrong way and loses track of where she is in the pattern. That does slow them down a mite.

WIP Wednesday.

Still working on the dog sweater for Ser Perival The Energetic. I am at the part between front legs and neck and need to try it on him again to figure out the shaping.

.

Frogged the first Kill Bill scarf, started it again with a different pattern. Clearly, I have a ways to go.

.

Tappan Zee has not glimpsed the light of day since you last saw it.

.

Cast on for a hat for BGFE. Yarn is Knit Picks Sugar Bunny, a merino-angora worsted; color (Wine) is less brick and more maroon than my photo. If you are having difficulty imagining how that strip will turn into a hat, click on the first link to look at the pattern -- it is adorable.

* * * * *

Yesterday I was a bell ringer for the Salvation Army again 3:00 to 5:00 pm in front of the local Wal*Mart. This is how it looked when I left home:

19˚ F (-7˚ C), but happily there was little wind. I wore a Calorimetry, a Noro striped scarf, a turtleneck and sweater, a down parka, leggings, jeans, and snowpants; and Sorel boots. Those of you in warmer climes probably know nothing of Sorels; those of you north of the 40th parallel probably do. They are awesomely warm. 

Lucy The Wonder Dog went with me. She charmed passersby, kept my legs warm, and prompted at least two people to donate. The last half hour of my two-hour shift was hard to get through because both of us were starting to get cold; I have to admit I left a couple minutes early. But my bucket got full. It was very apparent when the customers changed from home-all-day types to stopping-in-after-work types -- the donations picked up noticeably. Some of the earlier people probably count on the Salvation Army for help.

Please give generously to the bell ringers you see. The Salvation Army an organization that helps the down-and-out get back on their feet.