Well, I wish I had a picture of the little snack pack, but her Dad has been camping out at the hospital instead of darting home to email pictures to North America. Remember this? That bump has become baby B, who arrived on April 28 at 11:14AM, French time. Sooooo looking forward to seeing pictures. And I'm so happy for my little sister, who will be a loving and cool mother -- just like ours. Remember Lindz: Two Graham Crackers!
In the meantime, here's a gratuitous dog shot. Again: isn't he darling?
In stitchin' news, I'm one repeat + 2" ribbing from finishing my Sockapaloooza sox and am working on the waist shaping on the Picovoli and have just completed the opening ribbing on CeCe.
The Companion Animal and I headed for the beach today and had a splendid time chasing/throwing a stick and romping in the sand. He showed no interest in swimming but liked the boardwalk and inspected some geese from a distance. Later, in the park, we saw a hulking Goldendoodle -- twice as big as Stuart. I told S. that he wasn't to get quite that big, please.
New project a-hatching: Bonne Marie's CeCe: stylish, pretty, knit in ONE piece...I love it. Plus, I have a bunch of Rowan Calmer stashed away that was going to be a T-shirt, but I already have a Picovoli on the needles (in lamb's pride cotton fleece, "columbine" blue) for easy knittin' T-shirt wearin' summer lying about, so the Calmer will be commandeered for La Ce.
Note to sock pal: I'll be washing and blocking these sox before they wing their way to you! Thanks to the BBC's fabulous production of Bleak House, I'm making good mileage on sock #2, and enjoying it as much as #1. Mind you, yesterday the third DVD was NOT in -- was OVERDUE in fact -- and the hipsters at my local indy video store didn't seem to understand that I REALLY NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS. Last night I rented Shopgirl -- love Steve Martin, usually, but I thought it was tedious. You can only shoot Claire Danes looking wistful/quirky from so many angles before the audience clues in that it's filllllller. I have another Sherlock Holmes in reserve, but I'm hoping that the last BH disc is back to the store soon. I want to finish up this sock! I'm off to Kamloops on May 2, so I need to get my package in the mail on May 1. Also, puppy-as-sock-display-unit is acceptable, I think, because yesterday Stuart had his first bath (first one here at my house, anyway) and he is the cleanest fuzzball on the block. He didn't particularly care for the experience, but didn't struggle or try to make a break for it. No, he confined himself to reproachful looks, especially during the blow-dry. As you can see, he is Not. Pleased. But there were rawhide rewards at the end, and he slept the rest of the day -- after a muddy hour in the park and his ordeal at the home salon, he had to retreat and recharge. This morning he chewed the edge of my tax return, but that might not be a comment on the indignities of the bath.
And check out the final results: He's five months old today. Isn't he handsome?
Today I wondered WHY I had waited so long to get a dog...but then (and this shows how utterly smitten I am) I realized that Stuart has only been alive since November 23rd, so THAT's the reason. It was strange to think that in September, when my parents were here for a visit, Stuart was probably in utero! Yeah, I'm a little mental about this dog.
He's relaxed a lot in the last few days: we play with the squeaky frog, toss the tennis ball, hang out in the backyard -- it's great. He's so incredibly sweet natured. And as you can see, he likes to supervise the neighbours, just like me!
And I knew that people liked dogs (lord knows I do), but I didn't really understand...so many people stop to tell me how beautiful he is, or want to pat him, or ask about his breed.
Okay, enough dogblogging. Let's at least refer to knitting.
Here's Stuart, checking out my behind- schedule Sock-pal sox. Well, "sock" singular. I re-knit the heel on Sock 1, and it's better on one side, but just as holey on the other side. I think I'm going to cheat and do a little sewing to fix it. This one ought to be finished in the next day or two, and then I'll motor through the second one. They're really satisfying...I hope my Pal likes them. She's had a bit of a stressful time lately -- it's odd to check her blog and not comment. But soon enough!
Stuart.Here, Stuart settles in on his first night with a comforting rawhide treat and the Saturday newspaper. It was a tough day for him: he woke up on the farm, surrounded by relatives (his Mum, a bunch of young cousins, several other close family friends) and his original human family, and then found himself in the backseat of a strange car with two women he'd never met, driving an hour and a half to a new and strange house with one of the women. (The crazier one, too, worst luck.) If it had happened to me, I too would've whizzed all over the house the first night.
Day 2 was better: Stuart mastered the stairs to the backyard, tolerated my going into the bathroom and shutting the door (with him on the wrong side), and learned about his "leash" and "going for a walk," both of which still seem overrated, in his well-mannered opinion. There was a small upset when I had the nerve to run down the block to pick up a couple of things at the store without him, but tomorrow we'll do some work on Being Alone. Hell, I had to learn it in grad school, and it took me more than 48 hours.
Day 3 (today) we had new victories: Stuart learned to ring a bell when he wants to go out (still blows my mind), went down the stairs all by himself, met the neighbours on both sides, and took three forms of public transit. We're both exhausted, but it's been a good third day. And Stuart is in good spirits: I was just on the phone with my Dad, and he started to chase his tail. Stuart did, that is. Must try to catch that on film.
Tomorrow, we're going to take it easy. I've ordered internet groceries (can't leave him alone yet; can't take him into a grocery store) and included in the order is a big package of hot dogs, which I'll slice into pennies and give him for treats when we do a little training. And we might try to make it down to High Park, where there'll be no scary traffic and lots of other dogs to hang out with.
Limited knitting going on...I did go back and fix the heel on sock #1 (will need to knit like lightning to get the pair finished for May 2) and I've been working a bit on the cotton T-shirt. But most of the time I'm absorbed with the young furball.
Yes, shocking but true -- something Very Fun is going to happen this week at OY and I'm too busy darting around the house, chasing my own tail, and gnawing random things to settle down with the sticks. I was going to give a photographic hint, but Blogger is all ratty about accepting photos. Maybe it's a sign that I should keep it a secret until it really happens.
Yarn-wise, I hit The Wall with both my knit-a-long projects this week. Sockapaloooza sox: turned the heel...incorrectly. Blast and damn. Not looking forward to pulling it back...I might put it on a holder, knit the second sock, and then go back to it. And the Mountain Peaks Shawl laid a whuppin' on me last night. I tried row 4 of chart 1 a number [large number] of times and couldn't get the stitch count right. So we're having a little time out, the laceweight and me. We're thinking about how we've each contributed to our problem and we're coming up with ways to compromise and behave like grown-up knitters/yarn. Maybe after a very good night's sleep, we'll get together in direct natural light and try it again.
I did swatch for a cotton T-shirt type affair. Should be simple enough that I can stitch AND race around the house in anticipation.
Last Night of Eastern Standard Time...And a Wild One It Is.
It started out so granola-yuppie [guppie?]: hair appointment first thing (you can't see it: too clean and fluffy), yoga class at lunchtime, quick stops at the health food store and the library...and then I came home to the sticks, and it's Saturday night at 8:37PM. My god I have to get out a little more. Except that I kind of like an evening in with the CBC, a beer (all gone pre-photoshoot), and a couple of projects. In the lower right corner is an ALMOST finished object -- small pink cardigan baby gift. On the left, the set up for the Mountain Peaks Shawl. The winning needle is the Aero circular from Karp Styles (which is in the Northwest Territories!), and the point is nineteen times pointier than the Denises. So far so good with the join, but I don't have a lot of stitches yet. I'm finished the 14 set-up rows and row 5 (of 8) of the very first chart. This pattern has about 140 rows plus the edging, and there's a contest on the knit-a-long for the person who starts on April 1 and finishes first. That person is unlikely to be me. I can't BELIEVE how skinny this yarn is. And the fuzz is a challenge. Must go slow and pay attention and try to keep shoulders from creeping up around ears (worked on that in yoga today). I'm excited about learning to work with this stuff, though, and the finished object looks soooo pretty.
Exciting travel news: I'm going home to Kamloops for a week in May! Bless you Air Canada and your seat sale. Can't wait to see M&D and the guys and the short one and the dog.
Again: isn't he darling? 
Again: isn't he darling? 
