The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good...
Pepper is blending wonderfully into our family. She has not had any accidents and has not chewed on anything she's not supposed to chew on. She's picked up a few toys that were not hers, but easily gave them up and then chewed on a dog toy when redirected. She loves Zoe and likes to give us all kisses. She's not 100% sure of J when he gets his wild on, but did have fun running through the house with B and J last night. Pepper is sleeping in her crate at night for now. She whines when we first put her in, but each time the whining time is less (kind of like making a baby "cry it out."). Eventually, I think she'll go in with no problem. All in all, life with Pepper is very GOOD.

The Bad...
Zoe's been acting kind of strange for a week or two. More skittish than usual, unsettled, staying outside more. Hard to explain, but she's just not been herself. Well, I learned my lesson from Pauli that "acting weird" could mean something BAD so I decided to take Zoe to the vet. They ran some tests on Friday and found she had a low red blood cell count. While we were at the vet's office, J kept asking if Pauli was there. He thought that might be where heaven was. We went back today for x-rays.

The Ugly...
The x-rays showed a growth about the size of an orange in her abdomen. Let me tell you, that x-ray was one UGLY sight. They can't tell what is attached to--the spleen? the kidney? the abdomen wall? They are hoping the spleen because that makes it operable with a good chance that it is benign. That's what I am hoping. She will probably have surgery sometime soon. Will keep you posted.

If you have any extra prayer time, please pray for my sweet Zoe. She's 10 years old and they have been 10 wonderful years that I've loved her, but I'm not quite ready to let her go.

Well worth the wait

Just wanted to share a few pictures of our new puppy. We adopted her today from the SPCA. She'd run out of time at a different shelter and arrived at this one two days ago. She is a five month old, 33 lb "Shepherd Mix." I think she has some Rottweiler in her--she reminds me a lot of our dog Clover that we had growing up. Anyway, we've named her Pepper (inspired by Dr. Pepper) and she's a total sweetheart. We considered a variety of "Texas" inspired names--Dixie, Dallas, Star--but J liked Pepper best so Pepper she is. Pepper loves to give kisses and is always close by. She and Zoe have had fun running around the yard together. Zoe has no problem reminding her that Zoe is the alpha dog. J is already a big Pepper fan. N has gotten many a face washing. Pepper seems to be at least mostly housebroken so that's a huge bonus. We are so thrilled to have her as part of our family.

8 Months Already!

Little N turns 8 months today. He is finally getting a little bit of hair. He has 6 teeth now (4 top and 2 bottom) and is eating lots of baby food (fruits, veggies, meats) and some finger foods (mainly Puffs). N is a force to be reckoned with these days. He is crawling ALL OVER the place. He is pulling up on things to stand up. He is clapping. He's into everything he shouldn't be into (like cords, Zoe's water bowl, puzzle pieces, stickers, the toilet, etc.) He's a handful (new nickname: Trouble), but a very fun and loving little guy. Here are some recent pics of my baby who's not going to be a baby much longer:

This last picture looks SO much like J's first Christmas card picture it just amazes me.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

My Fellow Knitters: Advice Needed

Hey everyone. Hope you are all ready for a long (hopefully fun) weekend. I know I am! It's amazing how much I look forward to the weekend even though I don't work. It's a mentality thing I guess. Anyway, I need some advice from my fellow knitters.

As most of you know, I belong to a moms group in my neighborhood. They are a wonderful group of moms and I feel really lucky to have them as my friends. Anyway, since I moved here they have made me feel so welcome. My only disappointment was that none of them were knitters. However, recently I've had several of my friends mention that they'd like to learn to knit. So I asked around and it looks like there are at least ten moms in the group who want to learn to knit. So I'm going to teach them! I'm so excited!

But I want to make sure I do this right. So here are my questions:
1) Are there any resources (books, websites, etc) that have been really helpful to you as a knitter?
2) What do you think is a great first project? (Please be as specific as possible. Links to free patterns would be wonderful!)
3) How did you learn to knit? (Just curious.)
4) How many people do you think I could teach at a time? (I plan to do small groups because I think trying to teach ten people at one time would be impossible. How many do you think I could do in one meeting?)

Thanks in advance for your help. Non-knitters please feel free to put in your two cents worth as well. Have a good one!

Free Pattern Friday: One Skein Chunky Cowl

The cowl craze is huge in the knitting world these days. I've been looking at them for a while on Flickr and on Ravelry, but have never knit one.

That all changed last week. My sister called me and told me she had decided to knit a gift for a coworker who had recently lost her second sister to breast cancer. I just can't imagine. My heart breaks for her.

Anyway, this call was a big deal to me as my sister is not a knitter. I'm so excited she is knitting although she swears it's a one time thing. We will see. Anyway, she was trying to decide what to knit and we decided a cowl might be a good option. So my sister went to her local Jo-Anns and found some yarn she liked--Landscapes by Lion in Country Sunset. It came with a cowl-esque pattern. Anyway, I decided to look around on Ravelry to see if there were any good chunky cowls and I only found one. This cute Freebie. Anyway, I had an extra skein of Sirdar big softie leftover from Christie's wrap so I decided to make a cowl with it. I basically made a chunky version of the Gloria cowl. This is a quickie. I was talking, watching TV and knitting and it took a little under 2 hours to knit this cowl.


Here are the details and free pattern:
One Skein Chunky Cowl
Yarn: Sirdar big softie (Super Chunky/50g/45m/49yds/51% Wool/49% Acrylic)
Needles: Size 15, 16"circular
Gauge: 9 st x 12 rows in stockinette = 4 inches
Finished Cowl size: approximately 9 inches tall by 20 inches in circumference


Directions:
Cast on 45 stitches.
Join to knit in the round. Place a marker to show the beginning of a round.
Knit one round.
Knit three rounds of seed stitch:
Seed Stitch Round 1: *knit 1, purl 1*, repeat between *s until the end of the round, ending with a knit stitch
Seed Stitch Round 2: *purl 1, knit 1*, repeat between *s until the end of the round, ending with a purl stitch
Seed Stitch Round 3: *knit 1, purl 1*, repeat between *s until the end of the round, ending with a knit stitch
Knit in stockinette stitch (all knitting in the round) until the cowl measures approximately 8 inches from the cast on edge.
Knit three rounds of seed stitch:
Seed Stitch Round 1: *knit 1, purl 1*, repeat between *s until the end of the round, ending with a knit stitch
Seed Stitch Round 2: *purl 1, knit 1*, repeat between *s until the end of the round, ending with a purl stitch
Seed Stitch Round 3: *knit 1, purl 1*, repeat between *s until the end of the round, ending with a knit stitch
Knit one row.
Bind off all stitches.

When I made mine with one skein of Sirdar big softie, I had about 12 inches of yarn left when I finished binding off all stitches.

Modifications:
Different gauge: Find your stitch count for 4 inches. Multiple this number by 5. Cast on that number of stitches. (If it is an even number, cast on one additional stitch--it will work better for the seed stitch rows to have an odd number of stitches). Follow the rest of the pattern as written.

Want to knit flat instead of the round: Simply follow the pattern as written except:
Seed stitch: Start every seed stitch row with a knit stitch.
Stockinette stitch: Alternate between knit and purl rows for the stockinette stitch portion of the cowl.
Seam up with the mattress stitch when complete.


This is a great pattern for beginners and can really be adapted to any yarn and needle size you want to use. Hope you have fun making this pattern your own!

Need a Name...I've Got the Place For You

As I've been looking for the perfect puppy to add to our family, I've discovered another great resource. Petfinder.com is not only a place to find pets, it's also a great place to find names. The staff at the various shelters and resource groups are very creative when it comes to naming puppies. If you are having multiples (or just like your children's names to coordinate well) and are having trouble coming up with names that go well together, this is the secret goldmine of names of you. Here are just a few examples:

Banjo and Bingo (Boston Terrier)
Stella and Star (Lab Mix)
Kazzie and Kia (Catahoula Leopard Dog)
Verdi, Victoria, Violet and Vanya (Welsh Corgi/Shepherd)
Fenway, Frodo, Federico and Fuzzy Girl (German Shepherd/Golden Retriever)
Tiffani, Tailor, Tyra, Toby and Tymora (Lab Mix)
Randy, Raymond, Rhonda, Ringo and Rodney (Australian Cattle Dog/Bassett Hound)
Wesley and Willet (Lab Mix)
Marley, Carley and Harley (Golden Retriever)
Johnny and June (Boxer)

Or maybe matchy-matchy isn't for you, there are always theme names:
Jingles and Tinsle (Boxer)
Blitzen, Prancer and Dasher (Australian Shepherd/Lab)
Lexus and Jeepster (Shepherd Mix)

Then there are the "Texas" names:
Dixie (Miniature Doberman Pincher)
Stetson (Retriever/Lab Mix)
Alamo (Border Collie)

But my personal favorites, a family of Pug/Beagle Mix puppies:
Sue Ellen, Bobby and J.R.

Got to love it!

Making Loveys...and a Hat

Got to admit that every time I say something (or write something) about making loveys, I feel a little bit like I've just shared way too much info. Silly, but true.

Anyway, here are my latest bunch of loveys.
For a little boy:

And for three little girls:


The last little girl is my newest niece. She's not due until June, but we just found out yesterday that she is a SHE. It's the first girl for my husband's family so everyone is extra excited.

And the hat is The Better Bucket by Amy Swenson. Free Pattern Download Available on Ravelry
It's for my cousin, Christie. She's currently going through chemo. I knew I wanted to make her a hat and this was one of the first patterns I found that I liked. Then I found this Malabrigo Merino Worsted (the recommended yarn for this hat). This yarn is the color that reminds me most of my cousin so I knew this hat was meant to be. I never use the recommended yarn for projects, but I'm really glad I did this time. This was my first time using Malabrigo and I LOVED it. It is wool, but so soft and just wonderful to work with. I will definitely use it again in the future. Making this hat was my first time doing a provisional cast on. The one in the pattern didn't make sense to me and I almost chickened out, but then I found this tutorial and decided to try the crochet chain provisional cast on. It was actually pretty easy and the results are wonderful. I will definitely use that again too. The hat doesn't look great on me, but I hope my cousin will like it. The button is from Jo-Anns; it's part of LaMode's Vintage Collection.


Hat details:
Pattern: A Better Bucket by Amy Swenson
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted (Less than one skein)
Needles: Size 7 (16" circular and doublepoint)
Modifications: None