More Socks...

Still busy with orders for handknitted socks.

Here are two pair size 12 Patchwork Socks going to keep a jung man's feet warm in Toronto , Canada.

Best Buddies

After banishing Bib,the cat, out of the house a couple of weeks ago, for fear of her mistaking Jack for a mouse,we decided yesterday to let her back in. First of all Jack now weighs close to two pounds and certainly is not the size of a mouse anymore and secondly temperatures are in the single digits and even below zero with the windchill that i just could not leave her out there anymore.I propped the door open to the studio for her to go into but its not heated so its just as cold in there.

Anyhow, after letting her back in the house we introduced Jack to her. After a curious sniff and lick (its a little fuzzy):

she took right to him (i think the smell of milk on his breath helped too):

even sharing the couch with him for a nap:

I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

I'm so pleased with this little cat,she is so easygoing and gentle, I'm glad she came to our family.

On the yarny side of things there is nothing new to report. I'm working on a steady string of custom sock orders which keep me very busy. I've not had the chance to do any weaving or spinning, or dyeing or carding for that matter.Maybe in the spring things will slack off a little, i really would like to get to weaving a little, I've been using the kitchen towels i made last year and i absolutely love them.I also want to make several for gifts for the coming ( yes, it is coming again ,even though a while off) Christmas. This time I'll be prepared!!

I'd also like to get to spin a little,i have this very luxurious ,super soft,merino/silk/polwarth/alpaca/corriedale mix I'd like to dye in some fallish colors and spin up into a fingering weight yarn and weave into a soft ,light shawl.

But,for now, knitting socks it is and I'm very content doing it.

Boniva Disaster/Order Delays/Jack

So far not a good start into the New Year!

I had to go get a "BONIVA" shot last Tuesday and it didn't turn out so well.

Since i can't use my left arm for that (no no 'cause of the lymph notes i had taken out ) only my right arm is available .Unfortunately over the last 5 years I've been stuck so many times that I'm running out on veins.

I also made the mistake not drinking enough that day so i was a little dehydrated by the time i got to the doc's office.

I'll spare you all the gruesome details of the many tries by the nurse (who is usually a good sticker) to hit a vein.
Finally after the third try at different places (blew one vein on the side of my elbow) she hit one at the left side of my wrist. It hurt like hell when she squeezed the medication in but i just sucked it up 'cause i wasn't going to be stuck again. By the time i got home my thumb was totally numb.ODD! Next morning i was in somewhat of a little pain and my arm had swelled up around the injection site.I put warm wrap around it, took some Motrin and hoped for the best. Wrong!!

By next morning, more swelling, more pain and my arm felt hot to the touch; more Motrin and warm wraps. By Thursday afternoon i got scared,my arm and hand had swelled to more than twice the size was tight as a drum ,red ,very painful and hot to the touch.

normal hand:

not so normal hand:

of course by now the doc's office is closed until Monday .Great!

couldn't use my hand/arm at all. John did the cooking, washing dishes and everything else. On top of that we had both grandbabys over new years .Fortunately they are good babys and it worked out all right.John helped out a lot.

I was debating Friday morning to go to the emergency room at the hospital. I called both local hospitals for an estimated waiting time and was told between 4-6 hours!! No way!!!

So i just took some more pain pills and laid on the couch all day because by now i didn't feel so good all around.By Friday night i felt a little better and it seemed that the heat in my arm had gone down some.By this morning it's a lot better but i think it'll take about another week for it to go all the way back to normal, my thumb is still numb.I'm supposed to get one of these shots every three month. Guess what?! It's not going to happen!!! Doc 's gonna have to think of something else or i just have to live with my brittle bones!!! (can't take the Boniva pills since I've already got a bad tummy and the pills are very bad for that).I googled about those kind of problems and found a lot of people have severe sideffect on this stuff.So if your doc mentions this to you as an IV 'beware'.

At least i can hold a knitting needle again today and i apologise to my customers who have orders waiting, I'll get them done as fast as possible.

On the good news side, Jack the bottle puppy is doing great. he weighs 1#3 oz, and has his eyes open:

he'll be three weeks old by next monday.He still sleeps most of the time. can't wait until he gets more active. Theire great fun when they get to be about 5-6 weeks old.

Bottle Baby

Since my beloved Blue past on to dogie heaven this last summer i finally decided to find me another buddy (we still have Skimpy but he is more a outside /doing his own thing dog).

So when my neighbours Fiest dog expected puppies i put myself on the list for a little male.

I got the call about the puppies being born on the 14th December. I was to wait about a week to give the pups and mom some time to settle and then go over and pick my puppy.

But,next day i got a call that one of the pups had been rejected by the mom and had to be bottle fed. Since the owner is a very busy woman and don't really has the time to feed this baby every two to three hours i was asked if i wanted to take him.what a question!! of course!! took me all of two minutes to run over there.

And here is what i got:

one little hand full of puppy

he weighted 4.25 oz that day

this is him 8 days later:

he now weighs 10 oz ,is very active,healthy and fat. He also sleeps through the night now which is a great relieve

I named him "Jack" in honor of Captain Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies,which I'm a great fan of.

We are planning to teach Jack all kinds of tricks and take him everywhere we can.I want him to ride on the back of my horse,on the boat,the 4 wheeler etc.

But i think the first thing will be potty training if he is to spend anytime in the house.

He should start opening his eyes in the next few days,i'll try to get some better pics then.

Baaa Humbug....

No, seriously,I'm wishing everybody a enjoyable Holiday Season and a happy ,healthy and hopefully much better New Year than the last.
I'm a bit of a scrooge and am glad that we survived another Christmas with most of our wits intact. It's funny, we know it's coming but somehow it sneaks up on us every year.
Well, next year is going to be different, i decided that starting January i will buy one gift a month for one person on my list, by the time next Christmas rolls around i will be pretty much done without the stress,mentally and financially.
Wishing Love and Peace to all....

Knitty Kitty

Yes, definitely a knitty kitty !

Bib has gotten used to her new home nicely. She sits with me when i knit and follows me around in the house all day long in the hope of a treat or some petting which she gets quite a lot of.

She has gained some weight since she got here.

As a former outdoor kitty she tries to sneak out the door with us and has succeeded a few times but i catch her right away and put her back in since she is not spayed yet and the last thing i want to do is add to the cat population.

She is great company and i enjoy having her.

By the way, i want to thank everybody for their well wishing posts and e-mails after my fall off the bluff.

I'm all healed up now and as good as new ,just a little twinge when i stretch my arm over my head but that will be gone too in a couple of days.

I'm still busy knitting socks with more custom orders coming in .

There are big changes coming up in the spring (around april/may) which i will post on. One of which is my expansion of inventory. I'll be able to offer hand dyed yarns, spinning fiber ,hand spun yarns, and some weaving supplies in greater numbers by the end of summer.I'm very excited and can't wait to get going on this.

Waterfalls,waterfalls,Gaby falls....

We've been having some beautiful fall weather the last couple of weeks : sunny, quiet,warm days,temps in the high 60's,lower 70's.

So John and me decided Sunday afternoon to take Skimpy on a little hike in the woods behind our house.

We have two beautiful waterfalls just a few hundred yards below a bluff that surrounds the whole top of the mountain we live on.The shelters behind the falls had been used for hundreds of years by the local Indian tribes as shelters.

To get there we go through the woods about 400-500 yards until we come to the bluff.

There is only one spot where it is possible to get down into the creek valley without ropes or a ladder.

It is about 7-8 feet down ( the rest of the bluff is up to 25-30 feet down.)

we've used that spot lots of times before and never really had a problem, except for this time.

John went ahead and passed by a narrow spot right on the edge of the bluff .He told me to be careful the leaves where slippery. So carefully i placed my right foot and then my left foot and before i could shift my weight i went over the edge feet first.Halfway down i hit the trunk of a big tree with my right lower inside arm and slid down the trunk the rest of the way.

When i hit the tree the momentum twisted me backwards to my right and i overextended my arm and shoulder. A sharp pain went through my back and i thought:

" oh no, i broke my back!!" the pain knocked the breath out of me.

Almost at the same time i heard a snap in my shoulder and i thought: " ...and there goes my shoulder or arm"...

I finally landed hard on my butt , i just sat there for a minute trying to get my breath back and trying to assess my injuries.The back pain went away after just a few seconds and i moved my feet and legs...back not broken... thank God!!

By now John had safely made it down the bluff to me. He was white as a sheet.He said he had just got past the iffie spot and turned around to help me past and all he saw was me going over the edge and hitting that tree.I sat there for awhile getting my bearings back and moving my extremities,i knew i hurt my shoulder, it hurt BAD!!

Nothing is broken but i think i very much overextended or even tore a muscle in my chest and shoulder.

By this morning my whole right side ,shoulder ,ribs are very,very sore.and on top of that i got allergies and am constantly sneezing and coughing. oh, the pain!!

but, i can still knit! that doesn't hurt at all !!

and we did go on and i made some pretty pics of the falls:

Fall #1:

Fall#2:

I also found the tree John carved our initials in five years ago ( the old romantic :)

Update : Here it is three days after my fall (been trying to get online long enough to finish this post (phone lines are messed up again since yesterday), and I'm still hurting but it's much better already. I should be pretty much back to normal by the end of the week.