Overwhelmed!!

Well, with only 25 days until Christmas I am feeling so overwhelmed. I have not bought the first Christmas present. I have 2 swap packages that are due for Christmas both of which require a handknit item neither of which I have begun to knit & I have only done a small bit of shopping for them. I also need to start shopping for Christmas dinner. Last year I was not financially able to cook for Christmas which was the first time in 6 years that I was not able to do that. This year I refuse not to cook for Christmas!! Even if it means the adults do not get gifts. I love cooking for Christmas. I love making food that everyone enjoys and I love sitting down with the family and just enjoying a good meal with good conversation and lots of laughs. I don't get to spend much time with my whole family and Christmas is really important to me for that reason. So I am feeling like I need to make some kind of game plan. I need to pin down what I want to knit for the 2 Christmas packages and put Tiger Eyes on hold although it is so close to being finished I could possibly finish it tonight. I have begun creating a Christmas dinner menu it's a little different this year as my step-dad found out he has diabetes I want to try and make a few things he can eat lots of & also remember to make plenty of vegetarian alternatives for April. I need to get to work on figuring out gifts and knitting.

Learning A New Trick

So ever since I began knitting I have wanted to learn to crochet. I have picked it up and attempted a few times, but it never really seems to sink in. I try telling myself it will take some time just like knitting did, but I get frustrated and put it down. I mean I can knit so why do I really need to crochet too? The answer simply is Amigurumi! I love all of the cute little amigurumi things.

Those are just a small sampling of the amazing amigurumi patterns out there. There is an amazing designer on Ravelry. Linda Potts who has the most amazing free amigurumi patterns. Things such as Mario, Luigi, & lots of other Mario Brothers items. She has lots of other amazing things, but the Mario items appeal most to me because I grew up playing Mario. So I have spent the better part of my morning on Ravelry adding lots of amigurumi patterns to my queue. Not that my queue needs anymore stuff added to it. It is already 11 pages long with over 300 patterns/projects. Hoping all of the cute patterns will inspire me to pick up the crochet hook and give it another go. This is on my list of things to learn in 2011.

A Moment To Rant

Okay, so I need everyone to bare with me for a moment while I rant about our visit to the vet's office yesterday. So let's start from the beginning. Abby had some running poo off and on for about 3 days so we called the vet and they told us to gather a stool sample and bring her in. So when she finally decided to go poo again we gathered it up and took her to the vet. Once in the room with the vet we had a long discussion about what could be causing the problem. So ideas were that she ate another dog's poo, her diet could be to high in protein, or it could just be from the immiticide. So they did a full blood work up as well as testing her stool. The vet also did a complete physical exam. We talked for a while about the raw food diet and why we thought this was best for our dog and why the vet thought this was bad for our dog. Let me say that Walt and I spent a lot of time reading and researching this before we decided to put Abby on a RMB diet. The vet recommended Science Diet in Lamb & Rice. Which is fine with me I have no problem feeding my dog regular dog food as long as that is what is best for her. So after Abby's blood work came back we learned that she was dehydrated which was probably due to the diarrhea, also her protein levels were really high which could be due to either her diet or the immiticide. The vet recommended giving her a subcutaneous injection of fluid. I agreed because I just want what's best for our dog. So when the vet tech brought Abby out after the getting the fluid she decided it was her turn to berate us for feeding our dog RMB. She was in the room when we spoke to the vet about. She knows that we are aware of their opinion on this, but still she felt the need to talk to us like we were a couple of 1st graders that just got permanent marker all of the wall. So at this point we are already slightly irritated. We then end up waiting about 30 minutes at the counter to check out and pay because no one came seem to locate Abby's chart. So once that is cleared up the receptionist tells us that we owe $15.00 dollars from the last time. Walt and I both look at her very confused because she has only been in for heartworm treatment and that is covered by the SPCA where we adopted her from. The receptionist then tells us that we called the last time and stated that there was a family emergency and asked if they could keep her overnight. THIS NEVER HAPPENED!! We have never left her there longer than they tell us. She has not stayed the night there. I am already dreading that when she goes back for her last treatment on the 23rd that she does have to stay overnight. So I ask the girl if maybe the put it on the wrong screen. There was another Abby there the last time our Abby was there. The girl then tells me there was not another Abby there. "Yes, there was. You brought me out the wrong dog the last time!" I have no problem paying for services that we received, but I am not paying for something we did not do even if it is just 15.00. I just gave you over 200.00 for her visit today. Apparently, the overnight stay was entered by the director so they could not over ride it and he was not in that day. So they will have to get with him and see what he says. Also, let me note how poorly you keep records. You did not record her weight the last time she was in here. You called me on the 8th to verify her appointment for the 9th. She never had an appointment scheduled for the 9th. This is the second time you have screwed up the appointment date for her final treatment. You SUCK at keeping records and I am not paying 15.00!!!!

Seriously, this is the worst office that I have ever been to. I feel bad. The vet himself is fantastic! He is super polite and really informative, everything you could want in a vet. The staff is terrible. Not the entire staff of course, but the majority that we have encountered. I value what the SPCA does for animals, but once Abby's heartworm treatment is completed I will not be returning. Now I am concerned that I need to ask for a receipt before I leave the next time even though there is no bill for the treatment. Also she is now on a antibiotic for 10 days and I have to trust that when I take her in for her heartworm treatment on the 23rd that they will remember to give her, her antibiotic.

::End Rant::

Sorry that I had to put you all through that I just really needed to get that out of my system for a moment. In other news. The tiger eye lace scarf is moving along so well and growing quickly!

What's on the needles?

So in trying to get back into posting more regularly and getting back to more knitting I am here with my most recent project the 'Tiger Eye Lace Scarf'. The pattern has been a breeze thus far and the scarf seems to be growing rather quickly considering I am using fingering weight yarn and size 5 needles. The upside is it does not have be be knit super long as blocking will make the scarf grow about 20%. I must admit that I had sworn off scarves for a while, but this was one that I have been wanting to knit for a long time. Not one that someone wants me to knit for them. "Hi, my name is Brandy and I have a hard time saying no". Yes, this is my problem. I don't like to let people down and when I tell them I can't do something I feel like I am letting them down. What happens? I am overbooked and hate knitting. So here is a picture of the scarf so far about 30% done at this point.

The yarn is a beautiful aqua blue and lime green dyed on a surge base by the fantastic Julie!!

I also still have Walt's stripped socks on the needles. I really want to finish these for him, but they have been such a challenge. This is my 3rd attempt at knitting them and hopefully it will be right. I had to go buy another set of US 1 DPNs because I had lost one and could not knit them.

I also have some yarn on the spindle. That I have been spinning for what feels like forever. I know there have been weeks where I have no touched it which is why it is not done, but also because I was aiming for a lace/fingering weight. So more yards = more time! My right shoulder has been killing me lately so that kind of detracts from the whole spinning thing. Although, I did spin 2 sections of roving last night.

So this week I spun 3 sections of roving & knit 10 pattern repeats on the scarf. Oh yeah, I did some math on the scarf. If I knit 30 repeats that will give me 60" inches pre-blocking. That will be  480 rows knit, which amounts to 14,880 stitches.

Lace Lust!

It has been a while since I talked about knitting on here other than just in passing. I started this blog expecting it to be a knitting only blog because that was really all that was going on in my life at the time. Life sure has changed a lot in the past year. Well, I am dedicating this post to knitting only. I recently completed my first lace project. I have always found a lot of lace shawls and scarves really beautiful but I was so intimidated by the charts. I think the charts scared me because you read them from right to left which is not how we are used to reading things. I guess though when you are holding you needle up in front of your chart your are reading in the direction that you are knitting. The chart for the pattern that I was working was pretty simple and I did write it out just to ensure that I wouldn't mess it up too much. So here is a crappy cell phone picture because I forgot to pull out the camera while it was blocking.

I am really proud of it and it was such a fun knit. For any knitters out there who might be reading along you can find the pattern for this shawl the anti-craft blog. I have also finished another small project recently, but I am unable to share because it will be going into a swap package as well. I feel like I have so much knitting to do, but I am kind of uninspired by anything lately and when I am inspired I just don't have the materials available on hand or the time. I think in the new year I will be taking a break from swapping and focusing on knitting and spinning for myself and loved ones. While I truly do enjoy swapping it has just become very time consuming and overwhelming. It will certainly be hard to stay away. I still need to finish my Gail which was going so well and then just crashed and burned. I think I will frog the whole thing and start over. I also need to find a size 1 dpn to finish Walt's socks that are so overdue. I have some yarn I need to finish for a swap package. Hopefully, there will be lots of photos of finished objects in the near future.

Loss

So I guess I have been thinking about loss a lot lately. It has been a year since we lost my grandfather on my mom's side of the family. It was really tough for most of us as my grandfather has always been really active and spent lots of quality time with all of us. Especially for my sister and me. We both grew up not spending much time with our fathers so our grandfather quickly took over that role. We were always his babies. I remember taking summer trips in the RV to New Jersey, North Carolina, & other places. I remember him at all of my soccer games cheering me on. I remember all of the amazing stories he used to tell about when he was a kid. My grandfather was always there to help when you needed it. He was a strong and gentle man with lots of love to share. One of the things I always admired about my grandfather is that he never dated anyone after my grandmother passed, which was 17 years before my grandfather. He never took off his wedding ring either. I hope to find the kind of love that he had for her. I hope to have his kind of strength and his amazing character. He taught me that life can teach you so much more than any book. My grandfather who only had a 6th grade education was one of the smartest people I knew. He had lived life. He had seen so much change in the world. My grandfather was born in 1927 so you can imagine all the things you read about in history books that he was actually around to see and experience. I can't think of a day in the past year that I have not thought about him. I know there is so much of him in me and I am very thankful for that. I know that I am a better person because of him.

With that said we are now dealing with the possibility that my mom may have breast cancer. I can't think of anyone other than my mom who has had more of an impact on my life. We are still waiting to hear the results of a mammogram she had this past Friday and I am hoping for the best, but I am expecting the worst. My mom is the most amazing woman I have ever known. She is strong, loving, funny, beautiful, & so much more. She taught me how to be me and that it was okay to just be me. She has allowed me to express myself even if it meant I would have green hair and black lipstick. I love her for that.