Knitting for my Sanity

Well, even with all that has been going on in my life, I am still knitting. I finished the monthly KAL for one dishcloth knitting group.

I completed another dishcloth from Harvest Moon Designs for a Dishcloth swap in another knitting group.

I really enjoyed knitting this dishcloth. It was challenging because I kept making mistakes, but it really is a pretty cloth for Valentines Day.

I also, am finishing up my scarf using the mistake rib pattern.

So, I have been keeping busy. It has kept me sane and calm. Which is a good thing.

A Tribute

Sadie

1/25/04 - 1/19/07

What a shock! Our Sadie is gone. She was diagnosed with Auto-Immune Disease at the beginning of the month and went quickly. She was a wonderful dog. I can describe her as a loving, obedient, happy, giving, vocal, animated dog. She will be greatly missed and it has put a big hole in our hearts. We love you Sadie and always will. You are in a better place now and will be there to greet us when it's time.

A Tail that Wags

What a week it has been. It is all revolving around a 23 pound cocker spaniel named Sadie. She means the world to us and she is sick. After taking her to the vet we found out that several things could be going on with her and one of them didn't look good at all. Of course the vet was leaning towards the worse case scenario. He took urine and blood samples and sent them off to the lab. We don't have all the test results back, but the good news is that he is pretty confident that the worst case scenario isn't in the cards. What was it? Auto immune disease or AIDS. With that option, she would have about a 50-50 chance. Fortunately, for us she is improving with the medication (steroids and antibiotics), but slowly. Today was the happiest day of my life when I came home from work and her tail was waging. I haven't seen that since before last Thursday. She stopped waging her tail for now, but at least I can hang on to that vision when I came home and it gives me hope.

With her being sick, I have been knitting to keep me from losing it. I finished the one dishcloth for an exchange and then completed another one for another exchange. However, I have noticed a mistake on the second dishcloth. So, I guess I will be frogging it. Fortunately, it's not too far from the end and I can live with frogging after seeing that tail wag.

Reflections

It was a great holiday week. I had off for most of the week and really enjoyed the time away from work. My husband was wonderful to me as always and got me an Ashford Joy spinning wheel, with a wooly winder. Of course he had input from me. He also surprised me with some little gifts and I was really touched that he had kept them from me and even made a half decent attempt at gift wrapping. Now, I have to spend time learning how to spin.

2007 has arrived uneventfully here, but it is time to look back at what I accomplished as far as knitting is concerned. I knit 17 dishcloths, 1 coaster, 1 baby afghan, 1 regular afghan, 1 pair of socks, 2 scarves, 1 lace shawl, and 1 poncho.

I also read 28 books (4 less than last year). I have been keeping track of the books I have read since 1985. It's interesting to look back and see how many books I have read through the years. So, at the end of last year I decided to keep track of what I knit for 2006. The best book I read was the Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells.

As far as New Year resolutions go, I am bad at keeping them. But, I do want to knit more, read more and learn to spin. I have a large stash, but I am not participating in the knitting from my stash this year because I don't want to be confined to not buying yarn.....at least not yet (even though I should be). I also want to try and knit each dishcloth for the knit a long's in the Monthly Dish Cloth KAL yahoo group. Lastly, I want to be a better blogger. I want to post more and take more pictures of my finished and in process projects. At least it will be a record of what I am knitting (or crocheting and spinning). Oh, did I tell you that I also wanted to try to go back to crocheting too?

I am proud that I did finish up projects that I had in progress. However, I couldn't stand it any longer and have started on several new projects. Of course, I am knitting dishcloths. I love the patterns that are posted for sale on the Harvest Moon blog and Knitwits Heaven. Here are two that I am making for an exchange:

I'm also working on a mistake rib scarf using Manos (this yarn is so dreamy that I couldn't help myself).

And a baby blanket using Sirdar Snowflake Chunky. I'm told that baby's just love this yarn because it's so soft. Isn't the striping cool? I love the colors.

I also want to start on a lace scarf made with the qiviut that I got from the Arctic Lace KAL. The yarn is really beautiful. I wanted to start it this week, but I need size 3 needles and don't have any. So, I may need to wait until the weekend to buy some. I was able to get two skeins, plus a tote bag and an issue of Wild Fibers Magazine. I'm so excited to start this project.

So, it'll be interesting to come back here on January 1, 2008 and see what changes are in store for me, what I have accomplished and what new resolutions I will try and keep.