Introducing.........

Tucker.

This is my parent's new dog. Yes the dog they weren't going to get. When we were dog-and-cat sitting for friends and we were getting ready for them to go home I said to my mom "it is going to be lonely with no animals around" She said "Yeah your dad said that too". Then I knew that we would be getting a new friend soon.

And here he is. He is an 8 week old Miniature Schnauzer and he is too cute. So I am back to protecting the yarn. I'm just sad that in two months I will be without a pet again because he is my parents dog and when we more he will stay with them.

Deathly Hollows/Renewed love of Thermal

I have discovered the secret to knitting thermal for long periods of time. READ. Specifically read this!

I haven't been able to put the book down. I read it until the wee hours of the morning. And to be productive while I was reading I started to work on Thermal.

Connie has often asked me how I can read and knit and there are a few secrets. One is to be working on something that you don't have to pay attention to. A good example is plain stockinette socks or parts of sweaters that go forever back and forth or round and round with minimal stitch pattern or shaping.

My other secret is this:

In order to keep the book open I use one of my hair clips. This little one holds at least 150 pages no problem. And well that is about it. That's how I do it. I think Wendy Knits wrote about reading and knitting a while ago too actually so I know it is not just me and that you can do it too if you don't already.

P.S. The brick is done on the house and the NEW maple stringers and stairs are up. So tell me why it was a big hastle to replace them because it would take so long to order them and for the builder to get them and now...... they already are installed. Hmmm this is fishy. I think they just wanted to delay us because I was mad at them and they got mad back. (And yes they have bumped our closing date another two weeks because of the stairs that would take so long to get.)

I made the cat sitting cat a kitty bed. It didn't take long and I had some yarn sitting around that I wasn't going to use for anything else so cat bed it is.

I used 3 balls of Patons Classic Wool held in double

It took me about 3 days and then...the cat didn't want to lay in it. *sigh* He sniffed it while I was working on it and would come around and want some lovin' but was all said and done I put him in it and he got right back out and lay down beside it.

On the weekend when I was away, my mother decided she would help get the cat to like the bed. She bought some catnip and put the whole package into the bed. She turned my cat bed into a kitty drug lab. But she did catch him laying in it. ONCE! hahaha. Henry doesn't seem to care about catnip but if you look at the picture you can see SOME of the catnip in the bed. He is laying on the rest.

I have been trying to post but the laptop has been shutting off on me for no reason. It isn't hot. It isn't even on for that long sometimes and it will just quit. I hope everything is ok.

I have to go today to sign my mortgage. That is a little scary. I feel like I'm signing my life away. At least all of my money I guess. Better get going though. This working nights thing is good in some ways but I have been on the go everyday during the week this week and then have work at night.

Finally!

Finally we got the problem with the house figured out. It took 4 days and a trip to my lawyer. Because after the talk with the builder the lady from the design centre called me back. Their solution to the problem was that they could replace the stringers and the price would be $1025 plus gst. I said "what is the full price of that upgrade?". That is the full price of the upgrade. " I told her I don't think that we should have to pay for their mistake at all let alone full price and I would need to think about it.

I went to the lawyer and he told me that if we want the upgrade then we should pay for it and the only thing we can do is to try to get that money back after. *sigh* But part of me thinks if there is any chance I would rather give some money to the lawyer than to the builder just on principal. But the bottom line is that I will not have oak stairs and maple handrails.

and

Finally! I'm on Ravelry!!!! I am hooked. I haven't had any time to post on the blog because I can't stop playing with it. I am still in the process of putting all of my me stash in it and pictures. OMG I forgot I had half of this yarn. It is a little crazy but it makes me happy that I have so many pretty things.

The problem is that I have found a lot of things that I don't like and will never knit with probably. I'm debating putting those on a well but I might keep it off because next year I'm hoping to start a kids knitting club at my school and it would be good to have some supplies of acrylic and the like.

If anyone has started a kids club like this please let know (knittingnonsense(at)yahoo(dot)ca )because I am trying to think of the things we would need but I'm sure I will have forgotten something and I'm also thinking of ways I can get supplies donated.

So come find me on ravelry. Send me a message and say hi! I love ravelry!!!!!

What?? or GRRRRRR!

I have animals for two weeks and they are very sweet. I miss having pets. The dog's name is Kelsey and the cat is Henry.

I also started my summer job today and have been doing lots of wedding plans so not much knitting being done. So much for finishing like mad on my week off. I did finally get my order from cafe press.

And I'm a little ticked off today. I don't know if anyone has had experience with this type of thing before any advice would be greatly appreciated.

We have been going out to the house regularly to see what is going on. Our stairs have been in the living room for a while now wrapped up. We looked in the wrap and saw Oak stairs. Aaron and I upgraded the handrails to maple.hmmmm we thought this is strange. I emailed the design centre a.s.a.p. on June 16th and didn't get any response until today! WHAT????

Then what they tell me is that the person we were dealing with upgraded our handrails but not the rest of the stairs. Are we supposed to know that?? Because now our options are to have the handrails downgraded to oak or she will upgrade the side of the stairs to maple at no charge but the "stringer" which is up the side where the wall is has to stay oak. WHAT????? I said "I was there on the weekend and the stairs are not installed so can we get the stairs we wanted?" Apparently no! The stairs have been ordered and manufactured and delivered. WHAT???? "But they are wrong" I said "this is our first house and we really want it to be what we wanted" Sorry the builder reserves the right to make changes. "So do I need to contact the builder about this?" Now she is going to contact the builder for me. I told the very nice lady that I understand that a mistake has been made but it needs to be fixed and that we had no way of knowing that there was a separate upgrade (because it only makes sense to have it as the same upgrade).

I kept my cool even thought I was freaking out. I refrained from the pyrotechnic display of swears that my fiance used. I also didn't threaten a phone call to the lawyer that he suggested. But I am considering a call to the lawyer just to see what options we have if any.

GRRRRR!!! Please any help or suggestions or words of condolence would be appreciated cuz I just don't know what else to do.

I smell like a sheep!

I decided that since I am on vacation I would let myself be really crafty. A few months ago I was given a fleece. I'm not sure if I blogged about it or not but a friend gave it to me. It is a whole fleece straight from the sheep. I don't know why he had it for me but he told me that if I didn't take it then it would just be thrown out. What would any fibre loving human being do I ask.....

Of course I took it. Did I know anything about taking raw fleece and preparing it to spin? NO! But I could not bear to throw it out when I love a new fibre learning experience. I had no idea what I was getting into.

Before you take a project like this on for yourself .... let me give you an insight as to what you would be getting into.

Here is the fleece as I received it. In a big old black garbage bag. It was oily but all it all it was wool and it was free.

And here it is out of the bag and spread out on the grass.

I spent the day outside picking the big pieces of stuff out so I could wash the fleece. You name it and it was there. Grass, hay, burrs, bugs and...poop.

I would put sections of it at a time into some hot soapy water to soak and clean. This was really amazing to me! The first bit that I submerged into the water not knowing just how this would work. It does it all by itself. The water becomes instantly murky with the oily dirty stuff.

This is the colour of the fleece before I put it in the dish soap and water.

And here it is after it has been washed and my first try at carding.

Amazing! This sheep was pretty close to white!

I layed out the washed fleece on my clothes horse to dry in the sun and got into some dying today as well. (I know I'm a busy bee) and then I noticed I had a friend watching.

So I watched her back. All I could think of was the Yarn Harlot's thieving squirrel. Was this duck looking to line her nest with my hard work? She left without touching the fruits of my labour but we were staring each other down for a while. The duck was not at all scared of me. I was walking around the back yard and she was eating the bird seed that had fallen on the ground. If I stopped moving she would start to come closer to me. Or was it just the fibre?

All in all I had a fun and productive day. My hands are very soar though. I'm not sure if it is from dipping them in and out of hot water all day (like doing hundreds of dishes) or the little bit of carding that I did, or a combination.