Sunday 21 January 2018

Moving On

I want to thank you for your condolences made in the comments and emails to us.  Hubby and I appreciate your thoughts and kind regards.  We are still grieving but continuing to carry on.  We miss Reba.  I still hear her.  I hear her soft snoring. ( I think it is Hubby).  I hear her toenails on the sides of her crate while I lie in bed.  (This is truly remarkable since her crate is two floors below in the basement stuffed with her dog beds.)  I hear her dog tags tinkling as I sit knitting in the chair she used to claim as her own.

I know I am not hallucinating.  The sounds are real.  It is just my brain  falsely interpreting the sounds to help me remember my girlie.

After her passing I gathered all her stuff to pack away.  I was amazed.  I found 7 knitted sweaters, 2 knitted blankets, 9 dog beds (we ended binning two that could not be saved by washing) one dog towel, 5 dog crates of assorted varieties, 3 fabric cone collars  and a large assortment of dog bowls.

Almost everything reminds me of her.  I look at the squirrels sitting on their haunches on our back deck stuffing themselves with sunflower seeds, the alert ears and bent front paws - so Reba.  She loved to eat.  If you told her to sit pretty up on her haunches she went front paws curled close to her chest.  I see paw prints in the snow and remember how much Reba loved to go for walks.

 I finished the front of the green sweater (no picture yet).  I delayed blocking the green sweater.  I was just too emotional to touch it.


I  knitted it over Christmas while Hubby and I discussed her condition.  I tried to block it before now but I turned into Niagara Falls.  I could have generated electricity from the stream of tears flowing over my cheeks.  I armed myself with tissue today took a deep breath and plunged the bits and pieces into the sink.  Now it is spread out to dry on the spare bed.

Just before Christmas, our office had a gift exchange.  Turns out booze is the most popular gift item.  It is what I came home with.

I knit a hat to bring.  It was the first one opened (I did a lovely job of wrapping).  No one stole it or traded it.  It stayed with the original giftee.  Turns out my co-worker's daughter's favourite colour is purple. It was on her head 30 seconds after it came home.



Knit with Paton's Classic Superwash DK wool.  The pattern is from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.  I made the brim double in lilac to keep the ears warm.



I don't know why there are spots in the photos.  They were not on the hat.

After we lost Reba, I needed a diversion from grief so I set up my rigid heddle loom in the basement and wove a scarf.


Then for fun I threw it into the washing machine and felted it.


Made with Paton's Classic Wool that Hubby picked up at the Listowel tent sale for me.  I can't tell you how soft and thick and warm this scarf is.  I love the striping pattern.  I just love everything about it.  I just can't wear it.  It is like wrapping myself in my grief .

Back in the fall when I went to Little Red Mitten while Reba was in treatment in London (seems so long ago now), I bought two balls of the Mally Locks Sockwool in the Christmas colourway.  I knit one into the socks for the 2018 Fair.  I made the other into this.


After all I already had the loom set up.

I finished these socks.  They are in the drawer for the nieces. 


It is Regia 4 fadig Color.  I bought it a couple of years ago on sale at our local fabric store.  (I have yarn for the next pair ready.  I really need to stop with the socks and focus on the Fair projects.  Maybe I should seek therapy.)

I finally settled on a wreath for the Fair Theme category.   I could not find a pattern I wanted to knit so I am going without an overall pattern or plan.   I got the styrofoam ring covered.


This little guy, when completed along with some other stuff will be attached to it.  I am winging it as I go so the end result will be a surprise to you and me.


Somehow I acquired a couple of booklets of patterns by Alan Dart. This is a Swedish Yuletide Gnome.  I really want to knit both books  in their entirety and use up everything in my stash.  Do you think they will all fit on the ring?  Even Noah's Ark?  Will I live long enough?

Irresistable Gifts to Knit
Advent Tree

PS  While I am coping with our loss by knitting.  Hubby is coping by buying bird seed and feeding the birds, squirrels, mice and rabbits that are populating our back yard.  We assume there are mice  but have not actually seen any.  Why else would we be hearing an owl in the oak tree.  We also assume that there is a hawk.  We haven't seen one of them either but we have seen scattered bird feathers.

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