Oogyknitter

 Well, every day is a fetching frenzy around here!  I hope you're well, we're good here! Benson has developed the habit of placing his strange red chipmunk (most beloved toy ever) on our laps or computer keyboard.  He often does it with such care that it's too charming not to pick it up and throw it.  He has taught us well! You might notice a little glitch in the corner of his left eye, made shinier by the ointment I've schmeered on it.  I'm hoping it's nothing more than he caught some skin with his nail while scratching.  We've been giving him these dog omega supplements that have really made his coat shiny and bright, and we think he's scratching less too, but that's harder to tell objectively. We've had a bunch of rip-snorting t-storms this week, and much to our surprise Benson didn't totally freak out.  He even seems to enjoy finding the random bees that continue to plague us (the bug guy came again yesterday so hopefully this latest wave...

Hello on Taco Tuesday!  I hope this finds you well; we're good here - AND having tacos for dinner tonight, imagine that! But that's not the ironic part.  What's ironic is that the August Gift pattern is a shawl, LOL!  Well, it's a good thing that Neuro and I both happen to have one underway!  Here is mine in its current state, and it's really starting to look and feel like a shawl now: I do feel like I've been knitting on it all week as well.  But, if I'm lucky, I'll have Clue 3 done before Clue 4 comes out on Friday! We had a wicked thunderstorm early this morning, with more lightning than you could imagine, and super-loud thunder.  And rain.  So of course we were all awake and one of us had to go outside at one point.  Two of us are a bit groggy today, while the third one is his usual energetic self! On non-stormy mornings, if we get up early enough there are usually several deer out on their spot across the field and along the treeline.  ...

TGIF!!!!  I hope this finds you well; we're good here. I have no idea where the week went, and can't believe that we're coming to the end of August already!  I know I was knitting my ass off, and this week I'm only 12 hours behind the KAL cadence:   I'd better take my victory laps while I can, because Clue 3 is said to be even longer.  More death by stockinette.  Oh well, it's starting to look like a shawl now, and I do like it! Benson and I were up early this morning and saw at least five deer along the treeline at the other end of the field.  They all watched us as we paraded up and down the driveway.  Later on in the day, we saw Mamma and Speckled Baby walking by.  I hope that little thing gets bigger and stronger before winter! We keep finding dead and dying yellow jackets everywhere.  I've taken to vacuuming them up.  Better living through chemistry!

 So Happy It's Thursday!  I hope you're well; we're good here! So Clue 3 is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, and of course I'm still mired in Clue 2 in spite of knitting what feels like all week long: (It's starting to get long enough that fitting it into one frame seems silly.) Neuro, of course, is right on schedule, and her shawl looks ah-maze-ing!!!  Check out her latest progress on her blog ! I've been talking about getting some honeybees ever since we moved out into the country.  I haven't ruled it out yet, so I keep thinking about it.  In the meantime, we have lots of the wrong kinds of bees, so much so that we needed to call a bug guy to help us with them.  Thanks to the Ws, we got the name of someone they really like, so we called him as well.  Part One was today, when he injected his poison into a nest of yellowjackets within one of our eaves.  Part Two will happen in the spring when the carpenter bees start trolling for a place to drill the...

Guess what day it is?????????? I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. After holding a grudge against me for about 12 hours for trying to cut one of his toes off (um, I was just trying to work towards clipping a toenail, he blew it way out of proportion), Benson is back to our never-ending game of fetch: He's waiting for me to throw it here.  The indestructible rubber squeaker is just out of camera range. So after catching up with the Casapinka KAL on Saturday, I find myself knitting frantically to stay on schedule for this week.  Clue 3 will be out on Friday, and I think I'm only about halfway through Clue 2, yikes!  It's not for lack of trying, really.  There is a shitload of stockinette in this pattern, and that just takes forever.  It's very pretty, though, and will be fun to wear when it's (eventually) finished. There have been more deer sightings around here lately, although Antlers hasn't been back since last week.  I came home from gro...

 Happy Saturday and mid-weekend!  I hope you're all well and safe; we're good here, and remain covered in dog drool. Run, do not walk, to Neuro's blog , for she has completed Clue 1 for the KAL!!  Those colors are super awesome, Neuro!!!! I'm STILL working on Clue 1, although I'm in the home stretch!  WTF with 8 bazillion repeats of this huge pattern for the last part???  LOL. (The weird shape is due to me stretching it out close to the needles - the thing is just a long rectangle, nothing to see here.) Not much else to report.  I saw a momma deer and her baby this morning as I was walking Benson.  We all kind of stared at each other.  They were far enough away so that no one got excited.  Which is fine by me!

 So Happy It's Thursday!  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. I realized with some panic that the next Casapinka KAL clue is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, and I'm still not done with the first one yet!  To be fair, it's a TON of stockinette, in fingering weight.  And there is this doggie distraction going on as well.  I'll try to sprint across the finish line this evening, but here's where I am at this moment: The darkest color, the alpaca blend, is much skinnier than the other yarns, so it knits up a little looser.  I'm OK with that - it adds a nice dimension.  The handspun is fatter.  I'm counting on the blocking to make sure everything comes out fairly even in the end. In other news - it continues to be relatively quiet this week.  I've been making stuff in the crock pot, which is always a pleasant surprise when the food prep and clean-up is front-loaded.  Tuesday's chili recipe is huge and always makes for good leftovers to...

Hello on this Taco Tuesday! (although it's crock pot chili for us tonight).  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. As you might suspect, this has been keeping me from making any measurable (and pic-worthy) progress on Casapinka's KAL: Two things of note: 1) Benson is blurry again.  I wonder why, LOL.  2) Why is it that all dog toys look like dild*s? Even though he's still blurry, Benson continues to make progress.  Ridgebacks have a cuddly side, so we've been trying to spend what we call "couch time" with him.  He may have learned the word couch already, hard to tell.  Benson does enjoy some quiet time with us, especially in the morning and even during enforced quiet after his meals.  Ridgebacks also have a predisposition for bloat, which has something to do with stomach gases and emergency surgery.  The advice is to avoid exercise directly before and after meal times.  At three meals per day (he couldn't do only two, he would throw u...

Welcome to the weekend!  I hope you're all safe and well; we're good here! I see that, while I've been spending a lot of time playing indoor fetch with The Ridgeback and not much time knitting, Blogger has changed its user interface.  Let's see what happens with that, shall we? The big news from the past week is that the Casapinka KAL officially began yesterday, with the distribution of Clue 1!  Since I had all my yarns selected and wound into balls, I was able to cast on right away.  Of course I haven't gotten very far, but here it is so far: So these are my colors A and B.  A is the faboo handspun I was saving for something fabulous, and B is the darker gray of the Charlemont.  Since I usually knit looser than Casapinka's gauge, I went down a needle size.  So far it's working well - I even get to trot out my new skill of knitting backwards for these smooth sections! Other than that, things have been fairly quiet here.  I hope to have more knitti...

Hello on Taco Tuesday! (Well, we're having quesadillas, so technically it's Quesadilla Quesday!).  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here.  For those of us having some extreme weather today, on top of everything else, please be extra safe :) Since Friday is still a long way off (the start of the Casapinka KAL), and I've wound the yarns into balls, I threw in the skein of cotton for the Laura Nelkin market bag that is my July Gift project.  Here it is thus far: I don't usually enjoy working with cotton, or metal-tipped circs, but here we are, and so far it's actually not too bad.  It's even possible that this could be a nice b-day gift for Oogymom. Benson continues his adjustment, and has started to guard us on occasion.  At night he'll baroo if he hears or sees anything afoot.  It wakes us all up, but one of these days it might actually be something!  He also sat on the floor next to me when I was taking a nap on the couch yesterday (l...

Hello on this Saturday!  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. The yarns I ordered for the Casapinka KAL arrived yesterday; here they all are, together at last: The two balls of the handspun look very different in this photo, but I'm going to blame that on the flash and my lousy photography skills.  They're actually very similar. What I need to do next, and before this thing officially kicks off next Friday, is wind the two skeins into balls and decide which color will associate with which assignment in the pattern (A,B,C,D).  There are some guidelines but I haven't spent any quality time with them yet.  I'm otherwise looking forward to a day of catching up - on sleep (check that one off!), with some friends, getting my new computer set up (the surprise ridgeback sort of glommed up those plans for a bit!), etc.  I'm also excited to do some meal planning for next week.  When did I become that person?? OH, wildlife updates.  So last ...