Halfway Down the Stairs

I. Am. So. Tired.

The puppy feels better.
Kona is tired too.


I finished my preemie hats. They went in the mail this morning.


I didn't use up the whole hat stash, but it's going into the knitting bag to work on over the year for next years' collection.


My Sockamania New Year Socks are done:

Pattern: New Year Socks by Annie Design for Sockamania. Yarn: Lisa Souza Hand Dyed Hardtwist Merino Petite Yarn in the Newtown colorway. Needles: Knitpick's size 2 dpn's. Started: January 19, 2008 Completed: January 27, 2008. This was a really fun pattern to knit - and compare to version that everyone else knit.

I think there were three different pairs here:

I think this is non-blogger's row - although Deepa has just started a new blog (which I do not have the url for, sorry). Then there's Anne with her hands full of neon, and for the life of me I can't remember this next dear lady's name - but she's met my SP from the Netherlands! How is THAT for a small, small world? (Hi Yvonne!)

Here is my version of this picture, (I took it as I ran out the door to pick up the Teen from snowboarding). Renee (s/b Reviews R Us!), Connie, Christy and Deb who is not Wound Quite so Tight! (that would be the other Deb!)

Again, thank you Amy!

The cold air is back and the wind is blowing like crazy. I have to run some errands, but then I am planning on throwing some food in the crockpot and not leaving the house any time soon!

Stay warm everybody.

Puckgard

All right, so I know not everybody is a hockey fan, but come on, it's Minnseota. What else are you gonna do when it's eighty gazillion degrees below zero, there's a Writer's strike on and American Idol is just annoying until the final candidates are in?

The Puckster had a great game last night, and those of you who know my family's real names can imagine the many different forms of the name Boogard that my son has officially earned. So, if you know hockey, you know Boogard is one of the Wild's enforcers, he protects our goalie in front of the net, and if he's at the other net he's poking the puck underneath a downed goalie, when he's not dropping the gloves, that is.

Anyway, Puck's team had a lackluster first and second period with large quantities of penalties (no fairplay points for these boys-either team-seven penalties apiece), the third period saw them catch on fire! So Puck's in front of their net and somebody makes a shot that bounces back out - the goalie drops to the ice - and Puck starts poking at that puck to try to get it in, once, twice, three times! Finally their defender skates up, shoves him on his keester from behind. Oops. Puck gets up, goes around one of our guys and starts shoving that kid right back. Both of 'em got two minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct. All of that is SOP for hockey (except for Puck's retaliation - thus his penalty.) But Puck's got a couple new nicknames - I'll just call him Puckgard for your benefit. (Oh, and they won 3-2 against Apple Valley: Eagles V. Eagles!)

In the meantime, Ozzie is near to a full recovery, he's certainly enjoyed the nice "puppy feel better" present he received from Amy over at Knit Think!

It's supposed to be a little heatpack - you warm up this little bag of buckwheat and put it into the toy and then you put it in the crate with them. That works great - he really loves it - but then in the morning, Kona steals it and I have to take the little sack of grain out before they spread it far and wide! I hide it when they're not looking so it'll last through the puppyhood! Ozzie and Kona say "Thank you very much!"


The Alpha Female in this house also received a "feel better" present, and I have to say, Amy couldn't have chosen a more appropriate way to make me feel better! Especially since the new yarn coming into the house has trickled to a standstill. There was a really cute card too, but DH chuckled warmly and took it to work - something about the "Labraduh Retriever" caption tickled his funnybone.

An excellent way to warm up the week, don't you think?

#9 preemie hat was finished last night, I'm through my first skein on my Cozy V-neck, and sock #1 of the New Years pattern is finished - photos to follow!

Holy Smokes, I am on FIRE!

Seriously, three FO's and 1/4 of a pair of socks! I even cast on Stefanie Japel's Cozy V-Neck Pullover today!
Pattern: Thermal Socks by Audrey Paquin. Yarn: Spunky Eclectic Super Nova Merino Nylon in the Irish Dreams colorway. Needles: Lantern Moon Sox Stix in US size 1 dpn's. Started: January 3, 2008 Completed: January 20, 2008. Another really easy pattern, however, I really grew to hate purling in the round.

Preemie hat #8!

The first January Sockamania sock in Lisa Souza Hardtwist Merino Petite (yummy!) This is the Newtown colorway.
Pattern: Hourglass Sweater by Joelle Hoverson from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Yarn: Araucania Magallenes 8 ply wool. Needles: Addi Circulars in size 7. Started: December, 2007 Completed: January 18, 2008. Can't wait to wear this snuggly sweater!

The Wild game was fun, but an unfortunate loss. Our boys looked lifeless on the ice. Some people would like to blame the second sheet of ice placed down because of the figure skating competition this weekend.

Our little Pucksters had a good game on Satuday night and tied their game against Eastview - they won all of their fairplay points so life was good.

The outlook for Ozzie is much brighter right now. He still limps a little bit and is terribly sleepy, but I do believe he is on the road to recovery. He's going to go see the vet tomorrow to see what she has to say.

As for the yarn diet plan - I just may join the Stashalong 2 - If I can just remove more yarn than I am placing in, we should be OK.

Leeeetle FO's:

See, lots of FO's! See how the pile of yarn behind there is getting correspondingly smaller? Yay! I'm hoping to finish at least five more before the month is out.

The big FO is blocking and drying right this very minute - so I'll have to show that to you later, in the meantime it is socks, socks, socks! Still no plan or goals to tell you about - I keep stalling because the more I think about the planning, the less I actually have to think about actually sticking to the plan! Maybe it will be organic and design itself! HA! Nice thing is, I've managed to de-stash a little this week off of Ravelry and I've got a little pile of money in Paypal now, maybe when I actually get to reward myself, it'll be sitting there waiting for me!!

I have become a total hockey junkie - last night Puck's team beat the Green Machine (that's Edina to the not-in-the-know) 3-2, however, the Teenager was being artistic and performing at the High School, so I missed the Green beatdown. Tonight is Anaheim Ducks v. MN Wild at the Xcel Energy Center - woot! I will be there cheering very loudly, when I'm not gossiping with my buddy Inga. I'll drink a beer for y'all!

This is how we roll here...




at least, this is how Ozzie rolls.

Really, this is how he gets around a room without using his legs.

His spirits are good, but he is not up to acting the puppy yet. His little front legs are all swollen and stumpy. In case you can't tell, he's getting big. Really big. I don't know how much longer I can carry him outside to go potty.

Also, please help me, the Vesper Sock Yarn is out to get me. Knitterly Things has updated her blog tonight and O.M.G. I want Tainted Love.

Also? I have FO's!!!! Lots of FO's. Some are leeeeetle, but one is bigger! I'll show you tomorrow.

Goodies from the Netherlands...

First off, the package smelled heavenly. Yvonne posted this way before Christmas, and at the time, this coffee was freshly ground. I must tell you, it didn't lose any smell along the way.

And how can I go wrong with chocolate for me?

Yummy, spicy-smelling tea-candles.
Some tea (Oolong! I used to work in a Chinese restaurant and that's what we served!!) MORE chocolate + coffee, and a little tin of Roomboter Babbelaars, um, yep. The only English I can read on the box says Butter Sweets - made with butter, sugar, glucose and salt; how can you go wrong?


How can we forget the Wollmeise!!! (#5) Colorway Fratello (sounds boyish, doesn't it?), also, an excellent pattern. I'll try to get a better picture of the yarn if the sun comes out later. In the meantime - I am one lucky girl! You can go visit my friend Yvonne here, if you like. She posts bi-lingually most of the time.

Again, thank you Yvonne!!!!

I forgot I had these photos in a draft post....


Again, Bryony's socks - I was knitting these at Chris' house back in the beginning of December.

Wow. This countdown is going rather slowly...

#6 is my final STR shipment - I think this one is my favorite of all the shipments!



I also got a goodie box! My friend in the Netherlands, Yvonne (she was my first Secret Pal), we exchange goodies once in a while. I'm just going to tease you today so I can get some better pictures later.Ozzie is having good days and bad days, but each good day seems to be a little better than the last. I am working away on my preemie hats (5 done) and my Hourglass sweater - soon there will be FO's!

I still have not been yarn shopping, but I bought a couple patterns yesterday. I couldn't resist Persephone's Socks from Oceanwind Knits. (ETA: the link to the Oceanwind Knits website.)I've got to use up this sock stash somehow!

Also? Sophie's Toes updated today - she has some really gorgeous, subtle new colorways. I'm sad now.

DSC02266
Originally uploaded by lilbobo_stpaul

These are the socks I sent to Bryony last week (she's actually in Yorkshire!) The yarn is Araucania Ranco (I cannot remember the colorway at all.) My needles were Knitpicks dpn's I think I was in the 2.5 and the 2.0 mm sizes. The pattern was lovely (I made is shorter per Bryony's request), it was from www.deisgnedlykristi.com - the pattern is Siren Socks. The lace cuff almost killed me, but once it was done, it was easy peasy! I was very tempted to keep these lovelies, but I did not!

PS - Kristi's patterns are very well written and lovely to work from!

I received a lovely gift yesterday.


These are from Abigail at 1870 pearl. She organized a small "apres" swap, we each knit a pair of socks for our partner (in secret), and mailed them off right after the Holidays. Turns out we both knit with the same yarn! We also both agree that the colors are lovely, but the yarn a little difficult to work with. The ones I received are gorgeous and fit perfectly! And of course, there was chocolate (yea, yea, I said WAS). If you want to see the ones I gifted from the same yarn (different color) click the link. I sent mine to Bryony in Wales, I believe. I'll post the color photos later today. I sent them last Thursday and she's received them already!

In the meantime, 1/2 of a pair of socks is finished:

Two preemie hats, sans pom-poms, are waiting to go.

Ozzie is up and down in his recovery. The pain meds make him frisky, but he's not supposed to be frisky(permanent damage), but the pain makes his temperature go up and he quits eating and drinking (obviously, he needs to eat and drink). We are trying to find a fine line. In the meantime, I have to hold his hind end up to go "potty" - poor guy, um, poor me. Since we spend a lot of time sitting around looking at each other, Ozzie and I, I am knitting quite a bit. The Hourglass sweater cranked along an inch or so last night during the Wild hockey game (Woot!), go Gabby!

Sorry, I don't have a countdown yarn for you today, I do have some yummy yarn for you to look at, but you're going to have to click away. So, if I was going to join a sock club this Winter, this one would be it. There appears to be around 30 spots available, and the price is reasonable, without a lot of extras thrown in.

A Totally Random Post.

Let's see - new yarn #7 - lots more shinyness. Yarn Love's Scarlett O'Hara in the Friendship colorway. DH will have a pair of socks from this skein.



In the meantime there are WIP's. This is the Hourglass sweater which I can hardly wait to wear. I'm using the Araucania Wool.

Preemie hat #1. This one is finished already, I started #2 last night at Puck's hockey game. I have to tell you this hockey checking is going to be the death of me.
Puck had a game last night against Minnetonka that was just awesome! Those boys kicked some serious butt! They won the game with 18 seconds left to play with a shot from the blue line - awesome! That team had a kid who was a headhunter though and he had Puck in his sights. First period the headhunter skated at Puck and took him out with an elbow to the chin - you could hear the contact of pads with helmet, and then ice with helmet - not good - but no penalty. Our Puck only missed one shift though. Then, in the second period the same kid took six good strides and cross checked Puck into the boards - right next to the ref. Puck lay crumpled at his feet until the puck changed possession and the ref finally blew a whistle. Every father in the joint was yelling at him, "CALL IT! CALL IT! CALL IT!" until the ref FINALLY blew his whistle and dragged the kid off the bench and into the penalty box for Boarding. Still - Puck didn't miss a shift - my kiddo is tough as nails, I have to say. The team they beat won second place in last weekend's tournament, so the kids were absolutely pumped last night.

Ozzie had to go back to the vet last night, the pain got too bad again and he wouldn't eat or drink, so he went back for fluids and observation. He was like a floppy little ragdoll this morning. Hopefully this time they will send him home with pain meds so we can manage his pain here at home.

Welcome to a new day!

First, I should say that Ozzie will more than likely survive his illness. Only the most severe cases end in death and he seems to be recuperating quite nicely right now. The trick is going to be keeping a curious puppy quiet and still so that his legs can recover and he can grow up to be a strong healthy hunter like his buddy Kona.

We go back to the vet this morning to visit the results of his full blood tests and to get some pain medication for the little guy.

In the meantime, WIP's.

Preemie Hats!
This is about ten hats worth of yarn - I am hoping to destash this all into preemie hats for Jeanne's efforts. She's raised the bar this year so if you feel like knitting a couple (they knit up really quickly) check it out.

Now, I love to look at all the photos over on january one. Earlier this Winter she ordered some yarn to knit up the Oblique sweater from Knitty - Beaverslide - I hadn't heard of it before, but there were some very yummy colors on their website. I decided I would like to have a lovely sweater from this yarn, so before Christmas I ordered my own Christmas presents and I got this in the mail:


I got enough to make two snuggly sweaters. Aren't these just yummy colors? So this is 8 in the countdown. I still haven't determined my goals, but I'm knitting like crazy and I'm on day 9 of NOT purchasing yarn! Whatever goal I reach there will be less yarn in the stash than I purchase! I will be hoping to show some FO's very soon!

The Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good, Day.

This little boy got sick yesterday. Really sick. Have you ever heard of Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy? Seriously.

What are the symptoms of Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy?

Dogs that are stricken with HOD often show symptoms of mild to moderate painful swelling of the growth plates in the leg bones. It most commonly affects the ends of the radius, ulna, (long bones from the elbow to the wrist) and tibia (long bone from the knee to the hock). The dogs may show lameness and a reluctance to move. They may be lethargic and refuse to eat. A fever may come and go rising as high as 106 degrees. The disease usually affects both legs at the same time. The symptoms may wax and wane and resolve on their own or if the fever is very high for long periods and the bony involvement severe, the dogs may suffer permanent structural damage or even die.

A REALLY no good day.

Look! It's the Ice Truck Killer!


This is my new skein of yarn from Dharmafey (from Socks in the City)- she listed some colorways over on Ravelry and I snapped one up right before the end of 2007. It is very silky and shiny. ETA: Sorry - you have to be a Dexter fan to get the reference - she had some great colors based on the show!

Sorry I missed my countdown, but this is the first skein of yarn so let's call this 9! Tomorrow we'll have 8 - I'll show you another stash enhancement and some WIP's. If anybody is interested, the Yarn Nerd is updating his website tomorrow

This is what I was doing this weekend - or watching anyway - in Owatonna.

Those boys are holding up a third place trophy and they are very proud of themselves (as they should be!)
The dogs are all pooped out. A stay at the Hound Dog Hotel just took it all out of them.

Stash Management Plan 2008

All right, I admit it. I haven't actually started my new yarn diet yet. Now, it's true, I haven't purchased any new yarn since 1/1/08. However, I have been noodling this whole idea that this year I need to make my plan a little more pro-active and comprehensive (ooo - big words I haven't used together in a looooong time!)

It needs to be a plan that incorporates the usage of stash while resisting the addition of new yarn, at the same time providing me with timely incentives to remain on the plan...

So, we'll start a countdown with me showing you the last yarn added to the stash over the next 9 days, and then on the last day I will list out my rules. Then, that will be the last new stash you will see until I have reached a goal - of some sort. So you will be seeing lots of WIP's - like this little beauty:
I cast on the Irish Dream sock pattern that came with this Spunky Eclectic Super Nova Sock yarn - but when those buggery little p3 together through the back without taking stitches off the needles, turned into and then...k3 together through the front, etc.* and then snapped my Sox Stix I said screw it and pulled up a different pattern. This is the Thermal Socks pattern by Audrey Paquin. I like it quite a bit and I think it suits the yarn quite well. Really, it's kind of idiot-proof. There have also been NO snapping needles.

*Seriously, the pattern called for you to purl 3 stitches together, keep the stitches on the left-hand needle and then knit those 3 stitches STILL keep the stitches on the needle, and then purl the 3 stitches together again, then you k2 and repeat that buggery little stitch. Not me. Not today.

Also, my affections are seriously resisting that new puppy. Could it be that I was NOT READY to potty train and follow a small creature around the house for three months? Wiping up pee and poo and making sure he didn't eat everything within his reach? Dear heavens, I was not ready for this.

May I Introduce:


Ozzie! (AKC name Captain's King C. Chaos - yes he is named after this handsome fellow. My kids loved the name and it is very appropriate.) Don't let him fool you, he is the new arch-nemesis of poor Kona:

Here he is stalking the poor sweet guy.

Posts may be few and far between with this guy in the house. I am working on a couple pairs of socks and my Hourglass sweater - there will also be preemie hats - what I manage to post will probably be picture-heavy. I hope to get a post up with 07 FO's and a list of upcoming projects...I liked everyone else's soooo much.