Gaining A New Family Member

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted/emailed me about Shadow. We miss her so much. We donated some of her things to a local pet rescue place that runs off of volunteers and donations. I think Shadow would be happy with the fact that some abandoned/abused dog was using her stuff.

We have made the decision to get another dog. We went out to a ranch near Stockett, MT to look at Springer Spaniel puppies. We wanted to see if we would be sad at being near the puppies but we were all happy and decided to get one of the liver and white little girl puppies. Here's a pic that the lady took of the girls with the puppy we picked out.

Actually Zeus is the one that ultimately helped us decide which on. His tail was going a million miles an hour when when he sniffed her.

Shadow can never be replaced and we opted not to get another Cocker Spaniel right now which is probably a good decision since we saw a black Cocker Spaniel that I swear was the spitting image of Shadow when she was younger. We were all close to tears watching the dog walk by. The owners were kind enough to stop and talk to us for a few. We will get another Cocker again some day.

On the knitting front I've been pretty busy. After the round of steroids I started feeling a bit better. Not good enough to run a marathon but more normal then I had been feeling.

I finished my moms Catnip Socks (ravelry)(non ravelry).

 

The yarn is Zen Yarn Garden Bling sock yarn. The colorway is Blue Spruce. Great yarn, great pattern. I really need to drop a box off in the mail to her soon.

Started and finished a new winter cowl for myself. 

The pattern is Turtle Tracks Cowl (ravelry)(non ravelry). The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss HW. Awesome little pattern and wonderful yarn. I really enjoyed knitting on this one. I used all but 12 inches of yarn. This was knit with only one skein. Unblocked it's around 11 inches tall and it's 20 inches round. I'm pretty sure it's going to grow a little with blocking. I'm trying out the yarn to see if it's good for a sweater. If it survives the abuse from being used all the time this winter then it will make a good sweater for me. I definitely abuse my cowls way more then I do my sweaters.

I finished my cousins baby blanket in record time....took me 10 days total.

The pattern I finally decided on was Pamela's Blanket (ravelry) which incidentally was none of the ones I originally picked from. The yarn is Knit Picks Comfy worsted. It's perfect for baby blankets. It's machine washable and it's extremely soft. I'm amazed I knit this so fast because baby blankets tend to bore me. Guess I realized that this one had a shorter deadline. I need to drop it in the mail on payday.

I'm cruising right along on my sock yarn blanket. 

 

I've started the second row. It'll be a nice blanket to snuggle under when I'm done with it. 

My Lord of the Rings sock club package came in.  

Love it! I'm a sucker for green. One more package to go and the Lord of the Rings club will be done.

I've also received my TLE sock club package....CLICK HERE FOR A SPOILER PIC! This was the last one for this year and it's gorgeous!!! I have the option to re-up for next year and I'll definitely go for a second year. All the packages have been great this year. Some of them are ones I probably wouldn't have picked for myself but I loved them anyway.

I picked up a skein of each color to make scarves for the Special Olympics this year. It's a project that is near and dear to my heart. One of my cousins has Down Syndrome. I've been to a good number of Special Olympics to cheer on my cousin. It's Red Heart Classic yarn that I have to use but using the acrylic is sooooo worth it for me. If you can please stop by the Red Heart Special Olympics Scarf site and pledge to knit/crochet a scarf or two.

On a medical related note, my RA doc has added Methotrexate to the list of pills I have to take. This one only has to be taken once a week so that's a relief. So far I haven't had any side effects so that's always good. I guess nausea is one of the most common along with dizziness and headaches. Apparently I have a cast iron stomach so all is well. Unfortunately it could take up to 12 weeks for this stuff to kick in and really do its job.

I leave you with this:

Bree in her "going to work" uniform. Cracked me up when she told me that she was dressed for work. She never did tell me what she did for work.