Spinny spinny spin

Me: "I did a bad thing"
Lily: "Bought another dog?"
Me: "Noooooooo...but it's dog related. I stole Sugar's fur...and I spun it into yarns...."
Lily: "What she doesnt know won't hurt you"


That's a theory.....but I think she'll find out, because how else will I harvest the 700 pounds of Labrador fur I'm going to need to knit my dad a scarf for Christmas?!

(Don't worry, it will still be a surprise, he doesn't read this, I'm pretty sure)

Anyways, for those of you who have never been to my parent's house, or tried to have a "who's dog is smarter/funnier" conversation, Sugar is the family doog (that's pronounced like dog with ew instead of an aw in the middle). We've had her since I was in about 5th grade, and she's a hulking beast of a Chocolate Lab...If you own a lab you know they lose about 50 pounds of hair daily... Generally in your food, bed, on your floors, or in other inconvienent areas. My dad's been suggesting in strange ways that dog hair might be really fun to spin.

The rest of us think it's a little weird/gross.

While home last weekend, we had a dog brushing festival, and I stole the fur from Sugar's delousing  that we brushed off of Sugar.

Then Aimee and I hopped over to the Recycled Lamb and got some wool carding combs....

This is the part, where, if you are a logical person, you will notice the error of my ways.

THEN I got online and looked up how to spin dog fur. This sentence is the important part
"Recommended length: 3+ inches"

Length of Sugar's hair? maybe 1.5...MAYBE....so I pulled out some alpaca, did some verboten things with my fancy new combs, et voila!

Fur De Doog Yarns. It's a leetel scratchy, but I think it'll do. (Pardon the sucky photo, the camera is MIA and that's the best my phone will do)

Maybe that scarf will be mittens or something...miniature knit dog maybe...hmmmm

Hiatus

We've been on a little crafting hiatus at my house...not because I've been distracted by the dog...or exhausted beyond belief (although both are true), but because of a woopsie.

I was crusin' along all kinds of excited while working on the Beast. Why was I excited? I'd finally reached the BLUES!!! WOOT! Thats like...so beyond close to the end it's not even funny. I'm 3 squares from the end of the first blue row and I think to myself "hmmm...something looks funny"....

I pull up my color chart...nope, everythings in line there, all crossed off, supposed to be on this row...

I look at my stack of yarn to use, all good....

I open the closet. Count skeins...waiiiit a minute....theres 3 extra greys...that's strange...

hmm, oh well, moving on.

I sit down, and start crusin' along again. then I look down....

There's supposed to be a row with a strand of grey and brown, a row with 2 strands of grey, then a row with a strand of grey and blue....

one's missing. it's the grey/grey...I've ALMOST FINISHED the grey/blue...That's 700 yards worth of work.....

I threw it down and walked away.

I immediately came back and ripped the whole row out. It's not like its a missed slip stitch, or a woopsed purl, its a 4.5inch row of THE WRONG COLOR. It's so glaring I don't know how I missed it....

Suffice it to say I am now nearly done with the grey/grey row. 6 blocks to go. 

Now, here's the question...do those wrong blocks count towards the 2 blocks/night goal? I think so.... mostly because I don't want to be back over 60 days behind...

but also because I'm so over this blanket I'm considering letting the dog just have the stupid thing....

On a more positive note it stopped raining for almost 2 whole minutes today. yee haw!!

Prayers to all those in Joplin who were hit by the tornado.

Tail Chasin'ly good Time

Aimee and I are having a rainy day indoors, as I am home from work with the flu-bug. Errweeee. It might be the medicines but I doubt it, they are going well.

You know your dog appreciates hand-knits when they steal them from you. Stealth like. It's irritating, and also, adorable. I mentioned that she had drug the beast ALL OVER THE HOUSE last week in her free time. Well, after detaching it from her, she turned the space under my desk into a dog-den, and padded it with THE BEAST. Twerp... I left her be, because lets be honest, I wasn't really working on it anyways....

A few days ago I pulled it out and replaced it with a different, ALMOST IDENTICAL, cheap, acrylic, handknit blanket. I resumed work on the BEAST (only 61 days behind now, woot!). I left it on the couch, where it resides when I'm otherwise occupied.

Aimee was presented with a new bed, to prevent the BEAST stealing situation, as she apparently does not like the other blanket. This was decided when she pulled it out of her doggie den, and replaced it with a pillow from my bed. As I have 70000 million pillows, I let it be. It's a pillow. Who cares?

Well, I am sitting here right now, and Aimee's done it again. After I stole back a shawl she had borrowed, I looked over to see this....

You see that purple/brown mass shes all cuddled up in?!?! 

THATS MY BLANKET!!!

By the way the brown's are new, do you like them? She seems to...

I think I might just let her have the stupid blanket....

Since I hesitate to take a blanket from a sleeping baby, I'm off to work on a Haruni. Haruni #3 to be exact. This was chosen by someone for a Christmas present, so it's probably best to start now...

May socks? What socks...I don't know what you're talking about.

Comatose

That word always looks like coma- TOES to me...

New Piecework (Lace edition)-Purchased

Fun yarn from UK for Royal Wedding Shawl-Arrived

(SQUEEEE)

Pattern for grandma's christmas present-Decided (Haruni in *bleck* Ecru...I didn't pick the color)

Doggie Daycare-Set up

Icky tumor-shrinking medicine for brain thing-Started

Amount of knitting done lately- 6 rows of Rock Island's border...yeah, don't start, I'm really enjoying the dog petting thing.

School- THANK GOD, OVER

Amount of sleep needed- 10 buttloads 

I'm off to slip into a small coma. I promise to post some more with photos etc... eventually?

Impressive things

Impressive thing the first:
My dog can, with her collar, pull around the beast. I know this because she got tangled in it while I was at the doctor this morning and I came home to find her tied up, yarn strung ALL OVER THE PLACE (which is how i know she pulled it all over), waiting patiently at the door.

The second:
I have to study for 2 finals and throw together a paper, by tomorrow....I have approximately 11 hours in which to do this. I think i can make it, I don't know if that's a testament to my stupidity or my skillz. We'll see

The third:
It's been sunny for more than 3 days in a row. The dog and I are both loving it.

Fourth:
You may not remember this, but I set a goal to crochet 2 blocks on the beast a night. as of right now I am only a mere 64 days behind. thats 128 blocks for those of you counting. I persist in thinking both that I can catch up to this goal, and possibly finish the beast before the end of May. Here's hoping.

Fifth:
I'm wasting valuable study time blogging, for a change.

Sixth:
The only knitting I have done since friday is 8 blocks on the beast, last night, which I left on the couch. This, I suspect, is how the dog got caught in it.

Seventh:
While sitting at a stop light today I was envious of the little man at the construction site who holds the "SLOW" sign. I think this is because he looked so happy standing there getting some sunshine. Either that or he's into the creepy habit of sleeping standing up. Either way, I could dig that job right now.

I'm off, finals are over tomorrow, then I promise (ish) more blogging/crafting and less dog yammers....
Stop laughing Zach, I really will stop talking about the dog constantly...

maybe.

Puppy Loves

I apologize for the HUGE gaps in the blog. I've been distracted. It's finals time...and also, this:

This now lives with me.
Her name is Aimeeeee and shes loveleeeeee. Okay there's really only two e's on the end of both of those, but we all know I get spell happy.

Things on the knitting front have been slow. Mostly because the doog likes to lay on the beast, so its hard to do anything with that.

I've been working on a Rock Island shawl, progress is slowwwwwwww.

And we spend a lot of time doing things like this instead of homework:

Which is actually what I'm off to do now. Anyone want to do my homework for me?

Dizzy Dizzy Dizzy

Apologies for the blog silence, things have been hectic.  But yes, I am still alive, no need for concern, you can stop emailing. (as an aside, I love that I got a concerned email or 2)

Today I did some spinning. I invested in Judith MacKenzie's DVD Spinning Luxury Fibers in the attempt to wrangle this silk buisness. It's very educational, and without her I would not have made ANY progress... that being said....

As some of you know, patience is a virtue that I was not blessed with. I am a PRODUCT crafter. I like to see things get DONE. In a quick-like fashion, preferably. So I wasn't real keen on my hand spindle for spinning up this silk. 

Thus, I switched it over to my spinning wheel. It's lovely, yes?

Two hours, several swear words, and a small pile of fluffy rejected pieces later....

I've spun 2 grams. 

How much is left to spin, you ask? 

Oh, just a smidgen. You know. 21 more grams.

This is going to take the rest of my life.