And on the note of what the heck I've been doing with my time? This weekend I made dinner for some friends for St. Paddy's day. My friend who has a little boy is using his 2 1/2 year birthday as "right-of-passage" to usher in some more big boy type behaviors. "Big Boy Rights-of Passage?" I hear you ask. Yes, such as no more taking off ones diaper to eliminate in random places. Yes, you read that right. In other words, he doesn't want to mess himself, but needs to understand that the proper place is the toilet. In all honesty from my own experience, she's closer than she thinks there. Making the leap of not wanting to mess himself, is the bog one. And then there's sippy cups. I am glad that I haven't been around when a sippy cup has re-emerged from some nook or cranny with days old milk still in it. Big boy cups it is. I'm sure other things will change, as other parents out there probably have other stories of transitions.
So, on this night of Irish Merriment (I did drink the remainder of the Guinness I didn't cook with to honor my Irish/German roots) this,
and this,
became this.
Also, I got this little doozy done.
Now, for those who know my knitting, you know that I like cable work, but don't really dig the color work so much. Why not color work you ask? Because I can't seem to come by it naturally so I have to work really hard to make it look good. REALLY hard. And there is probably a lot of cussing involved and perhaps some throwing of yarn and needles across the room. But, it's done. And now Sally will have the requested black and white hat. If it doesn't fit she'll give me more guidance next time instead of just saying, "Oh, just a black and white hat". Of course, if it doesn't fit, I am not reworking a cabled color work hat for her. She may get the original Claudia hat in a single color, but not double color.
Oh, do you remember this stuff?
Well, I made it into more of this stuff.
To compliment this other stuff that I had already spun, dyed and knit up.
Then perhaps I can take another item off the "To Get Done" list. I hate having a long "To Get Done" list. I prefer really short ones and long "Another One Down" lists. Because I still have a pair of socks that need heels, feet and toes. Okay, so I really have ankle warmers that are dreaming to be socks. And now, I decided that if I'm going to in fact teach a cable class, I might as well design the piece for class, right? Right...
The real problem here is that my trade is not that of being a designer. Yeah I have good ideas occasionally and tend to knit from a picture in my head, but I often have to tear out, play with the thoughts some more in a more tangible fashion and then re-attack it so that by the time I'm ready to put it down on paper, I just don't care and am finished with the piece. Designers are able to draw out the picture in their head, and calculate the entire project and work out the bugs as they knit or map it out on paper. I hate them. Well, maybe it's closer to jealousy than hate, but there are some hard feelings.
Oh, and too boot, do you remember this holy terror?
He's staying the week with us. His owner had a death in the family and she needed the little monster to stay somewhere other than in a gunny sack filled with rocks on the bottom of the North Platte, but I'm starting to see the error of my ways. He can't be that bad you say, and maybe it's my lack of sleep talking but he's a truly bad little monster. He howled much of the night after being placed in a crate because after my friend lost a set of $4800.00 hearing aids and several hundred dollars worth of eye glasses I wasn't risking what he'd find to destroy. Also, he's like an annoying little brother that no one likes. He goes around from each of my four dogs and lone cat to harasses them to play, when that doesn't work, he tries humping each on in turn. Then he jumps on us. So the possibility of leaving him in the room with us with the door closed means no one will sleep either. So, it was a crate for the sleeping hours and since Bob worked, I felt like it was my responsibility to deal with the little bastard at potty times.
He's one of those dogs that is so thick headed, and now going through two homees where his exercise needs weren't and can't be met and also commands not enforced he has become one of those dogs that your voice and commands are just background noise. I might resort to the gunny sack if I have to tell him not to jump on me again.
To the cretin's credit he has figured out that I'm going to enforce heel and halt every time so he might as well do it. And since this mornings last straw jumping on me, he hasn't done it again. Plus, he seems to be recognizing his name and the come command is about 75% effective now. Stay is iffy, but I'm betting on me in this little war of the wills. He's got the doggy door thing figured out though they are still a little scary and we've had no accidents despite that being problematic at home. There have been a couple of episodes of digging in the yard with the freedom of the doggy door but that's not the first time that has been an issue with either our mutts or foster mutts. Right now, he's sleeping after his second walk of the day as I try to design a hat and get a blog post. So, I'm going to tie this all up and get them out for another romp across the river to get even more energy off of him. I may take a gunny sack just in case. I have to walk across that bridge anyway, might as well have a back up plan, no? Bottom line, he acts more like an 8 week old puppy than an 8 month old young dog. My own 8 week old puppy's have been more responsive and better behaved than he is currently. I figure it's easier to teach a 14 pound Great Dane pup heel rather than trying to teach a 120 pound pulling Great Dane heel. Logical, no? However like any dog; with the right work and human partner, he's fixable. Much fixable than most people I know.
So, I'll blog at you later and hope you have a good day. We're outta here.
Ah, Q....what a delightful post. The Paddy Day feast looks grand. And the hat is quite nice, too. My designing is always on the needles, so I feel for you. However, I'm jealous that you have the skill to put it all on the computer. One of these days. Sorry you have to deal with the Neville...hope it all goes better, soon. Oh, BTW, the new yarn looks fantastic! Later - Joe
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