Monday 9 October 2017

2018 Plan

I had lunch on Friday with my good friend A.  She is the one who just loves Christmas.  We searched through Pinterest, Ravelry and my Christmas pattern books for ideas.  The plan for 2018 is to make as many Christmas themed entries as possible.  Now not all entries with be Christmas related.  I do after all want to remain sane.

I came home and rummaged my stash.  A sub goal is to use as much yarn from my stash as possible.

I got to work and this will be a teapot cozy.


While it is blocking and awaiting assembly, I created these reindeer parts.


I cast on this sweater last weekend for my little cousin.  When Hubby came home from the Listowel tent sale  in August with this yarn I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it.  This will be my hockey knitting for a while.


I found red yarn in my stash for a Christmas stocking and I am making a list of yarns I need to pick up in Woodstock for other upcoming projects.  So far it is a short list!

Since my last post, I made Reba a second E-Collar.


This is from scraps of fabric from my fabric stash (yes I have one of those too!)  We have many vet visits in an attempt to help her get better and the staff at the clinics keep asking me where I am getting these collars.  Since she wears them 24/7 I picked up more foam for the stuffing to make a third.  They are going through the wash constantly and two is just not enough.

We finally have a diagnosis.  She has hepatocutaneous syndrome which is a rare condition in dogs.  It is a skin condition that results from poor liver processing of protein.  The result is scales and swelling of the pressure points; in Reba's case, her lips, her nose and her feet pads.  It is very painful, and there is often opportunistic bacterial infections.  The only treatment is an inter-venous drip of amino acids for the scales and anti-biotics for the infections. The amino acid drips only helps in about 60% of dogs and is not a cure.  It will only extend her life for maybe a year if it works.  However, Hubby and I decided to try it.  She was happily eating her meals and has gained back some of the weight she lost when we first determined that there was a liver issue.  If untreated it is always fatal in 2 to 5 months.

I got to spend a day in London as she underwent her last hope treatment.  My plan was to spent the afternoon knitting away the day at the Little Red Mitten.  That did not work out as planned.  There were so many lovely things in the store and before I knew it I was going to be broke if I didn't leave.  I did buy stuff before leaving and headed back to London where I parked in the shade of a tree and knit until Reba was ready for pick up.

I believe I see improvement in her feet but there is always a chance that I am seeing just what I want to see.  Her nose and lips are definitely better.   I am cooking for her instead of giving her dog food.  She is gobbling up everything I put out for her.   She needs to eat well in order to heal.   Hubby will be taking her this week for her second treatment.

The extra wide socks are on their way to Calgary.


I took a break from knitting yesterday and did some dying.  Hubby helped me pick up the walnuts from the tree around the corner.  I get a better brown colour when the husks are green.

I used some other dyestuffs from my stash.  (Yes I have one for dyeing too!)  I also mixed some  other dye stuff with the walnuts.  Here is what I got.


A while ago I bought  giant 250 gram skeins of dyeable yarn from Grand River Yarns.  I reduce them to 25 gram skeins so I have lots of yarn to experiment with.  I used to work with 100 gram skeins but my yarn stash just started to grow exponentially.  I could dye so much faster than I could knit or weave with it.

Not much knitting today either.  I woke up with a cold.  I am just puttering around cause if I lay around all day, I won't sleep tonight.  I decided to put this post together.  That meant taking photos and thinking.  Enough thinking already, time for more Buckley's.

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