The newest additions to the family

I am a big cat lover as well as a dog lover. Pudge is my 9 year old Burmese, adopted from a bad family when he was a kitten. He survived distemper and almost died from an intestinal tract infection. He is the boss and everyone knows it.

Sasha is another rescue, the queen of the house. She is a bit stand offish and only lets you pet her when she wants. Then a month ago I adopted Jinx and Jasper, two delightful brothers. I wasn't sure how the other cats would take to them, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here is Pudge and Jasper.

Sasha playing with Jinx while Pudge looks on

 Pudge and Jinx

The Vortex Shawl is coming along

At over 600 stitches, it is taking over half an hour to complete a round but boy is it worth it. I have yarn to do another shawl like this when I am done. The pattern is so easy and so beautiful.

Peaches & Creme is coming to Canada!

Yep, you read right. I am in the process of having a web site designed and hope to have it launched in about a month. I will be carrying all of the Elmore Pisgah yarns. For those of you who have tried Peaches & Creme, there is no comparison to the Canadian equivalents. The colours are awesome, prices are good, and service is great.

This is a fledgling company and I am starting with little money. I really would appreciate everyone's support and patience while I build this company up. I am really excited about having this yarn in Canada and I hope everyone else is too.

Stay tuned for the launch of the web site!

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

I have been mesmerized working on the Vortex shawl in Kauni. The colour changes are amazing and the pattern is easy but elegant. I am up to over 360 stitches right now and still going strong.

I have been an English knitter for over 40 years. I was self taught and didn't know there was another way to knit until I joined several groups on the internet. Continental knitting was mentioned and it intrigued me, but I found I couldn't get tension and gave up in frustration.

Yesterday I browsed YouTube for some videos and found an excellent one that showed how to tension yarn in the left hand. And I was off. I am in love with this technique and will likely switch over to it. I am only using it on the Vortex shawl right now, but I am happy with my tension.

Waiting in the wings, temporarily on hold is the Irish Diamond shawl by Cheryl Oberle from Folk Shawls. Make a note that there is lots of errata for this book, a bit of a disappointment when there are so many mistakes given the cost of the book. This is the replacement shawl for the two I lost and I am in love with the angora blend from Colourmart. It blooms wonderfully and this is going to be my favourite comfort shawl.

I am finding that lace is my comfort knitting right now. I have been going through my rather bad stash trying to make some tops for myself, only to find out that my son took out parts of yarn. I always bought with lots of extra and I am finding for each lot that I am missing 5-10 balls. This wouldn't be so bad if I was tiny like I used to be, but medication has put weight on me and now I just don't have enough. Another wave of grief and mourning has been overwhelming me each time I find something I like, only to realize there isn't enough anymore. I am almost to the point where I just want to throw everything out and start over again so I can avoid the hurt and disappointment each search brings.

The glory of lace

I just realized that I have forgotten to post finished pictures of Alita. Well here she is in all her glory! The edging turned out more ruffled than I would like, but she sure is a beauty.

Alita, size 10 thread, size 1 US needles

  

   

It has been a while

I don't know where the time went. Things have been chaotic and there has been a lot of self discovery over the past few months.

I started on a new medication for my sleep in May. While it hasn't "fixed" the problem, I am definitely doing better and Dakota isn't alerting as much. The poor thing went through withdrawal, going from alerting almost constantly to alerting a few times maybe every five days. I had to do some retraining because he just didn't know what to do with himself and he is doing better now.

I have been doing a lot of healing as well. It has been two years since I left my abusive son who took advantage of my disability. He took a lot of things from me, some of which can never be replaced. I got 10 hand knit socks, each missing its mate. He took my two favourite shawls - the Irish Diamond shawl which I love dearly. I lost about $500 worth of fibre, knitting machines and the list goes on.

I have spent much of the past two years trying to replace my socks, since I only wear hand knit. I finally tackled trying them on the knitting machine and am quite pleased with the results. I will post pictures another day. These definitely are a labour of love, but they work and are quicker than I can knit :)

Now that socks are taken care of I decided it was time to replace my shawl. I have some angora/merino/nylon blend that I got from Colourmart and have started another Irish Diamond shawl. I also have yarn for two more shawls from some Kauni and I can't wait to get started on those. I love wrapping myself in a shawl, especially when my pain is bad or I am so tired that I am freezing. It is like giving myself a hug, and nothing beats it on those bad days.

The hurt of what my son did runs deep. He doesn't talk to me and that I can handle, but it is what he did after I left that has left its mark. I know that hurt will never go away, but I have finally taken the first step to healing and I am proud of myself for that.

Service Dogs

Dakota went in and was neutered on Thursday. We did him early as the vet didn't want to risk the chance of his hormones kicking in and him not listening to me. I was very lucky and the Lion's Club in the area paid for Dakota's vet bill! I had applied for assistance but didn't find out until after the surgery so this was a nice surprise. In return, the vet is making a donation to the Lion's Club - awesome! Dakota and I seem to be touching lives everywhere here. The people at the bank went out and got a treat jar and treats just for Dakota. They surprised me when they offered me a treat to give to Dakota later :) They even commented on how far he has come in the last few months and are very impressed.

I am actually surprised at how well Dakota is being accepted here. This is a very small town and I expected some problems, but everyone has been very accepting and I haven't had one problem. Right now I am working on manners with Dakota, so that the public can pet him. The amazing thing is that people are eager to hear about my disorder and what they can expect from Dakota when he is alerting and how they can help.

I was thinking about it today and Dakota has honestly given me my life back. Yes, I am still severely disabled, but I feel more in control now thanks to him. I liken my sleep intrusions to petit mal seizures and it helps to explain to people what is occurring. The symptoms are very similar, as are the number of seizures/intrusions that you can get per day. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me and I missed Dakota so much when he was at the vet. I really have come to depend on him to tell me where I am at. The number of alerts he gave per day were scary initially but now I really need Dakota to be there by my side.

I have also been working on trying to get him to settle once he alerts. Because there isn't much I can do to "make it better" there are times when Dakota will alert for hours on end. At home he is learning to settle and I will thank him for the alert and tell him to play with his teddy. When we are out he gets quite vigorous in his alert because he wants me home. The funny thing is that I initially was using the command "stop", which he wouldn't listen to. Now I use the command "settle" and he has taken to that. He knows what "stop" means, but refused to stop alerting.  I realized yesterday that Dakota doesn't play with me in the typical hyper puppy way. That is the way he alerts when I am out and he is adamant that I get home. To others it looks like he is playing but I know what he is telling me. This big boy was born just for this purpose and he won't give it up at all. I have definitely been blessed.

Dakota is labeled a "service dog" and he performs an invaluable service to me. He doesn't like being without me - the vet will tell you how much he misses his human :) I had to pick him up early because he was putting up such a ruckus. This morning he shocked me when I jokingly told him to put the pillow on the couch and he did it! So we did 3 other pillows (he knocks them off) and he picked up all of those as well - wow! I was astounded that he did this so easily and there is definite potential for a lot more for him to do. So now I clamp down on the obedience training and start putting him through his paces. I am eager to see where Dakota will take me.