Ta-da! All done but the buttons. They are on the way, due here about Thursday, although with the blizzard conditions across the country, That may be optimistic.
The colorwork turned out great, thanks to this wonderful yarn, Kelbourne Woolens Camper, which I will plan to use again.
This is how it looked after the steek. I picked up 128 stitches for the buttonhole band. (Actually, I picked up a stitch for every row, then worked back along the row slipping four stitches and then passing the third stitch over the fourth, reducing the stitches to 128.) I worked the other side to match.
I didn't use blocking wires, just pins when I blocked it. (Photo below.) Some wrinkles got blocked into the knitting on the sleeves, but I can hit those with my steam iron when I get the buttons on, hopefully in time for next week's blog post.
I got the placemats cut apart, but still need to weave in the loose weft and then block them. I'll need the dining room table for that, and it was needed by family for the last few days.
While I'm waiting for the rest of the first clue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along, I'm back to working on my whole-cloth quilt, which has been sitting around for over a year. I really would like to get it finished this year. Things keep getting in the way. It's more trouble to bring out a quilt to work on than to pick up my knitting.
Thursday was Sandy's birthday. Because of Charlie's cataract surgery on that day, we didn't get to celebrate, but I got this photo. We'll have a party on his "gotcha" day, March 25th, the anniversary of when we picked him up in Pahrump, Nevada. I got this photo of him, though. One year old, 23 lbs., maybe close to full grown.
He gets groomed tomorrow.
We did manage to take a walk on the 10th, the day before his birthday, which is also our older granddaughter's birthday. (I can't believe she's already 31!) We have been having snowstorms, so we took advantage of a break in the weather.
The pups had a good time playing in the snow.
They had snowballs in their leg and belly hair by the time they got home.
Poor Sandy had to spend about three hours of his birthday in his crate, because of Charlie's cataract surgery. The surgery went well, though, and recovery is going well too. His checkup the next day showed healing was as expected, and he already was seeing clearly again. It's a bit scary, though, because his other eye was damaged in an accident many years ago when he was young and his brain learned to ignore the limited vision in that eye. Surgery on his one good eye is not without risk.
Peter came down from Beaverton on Thursday to help out, in case something came up. The trip was a challenge for him, because we were already getting more snow on Thursday. He had to come over a mountain pass to get here. We found out they closed that highway after he got through. He had planned to go home yesterday (assuming we didn't need him anymore) but postponed his return because of the winter storm. He will try to go home today. He has to use chains, because he doesn't need snow tires at home.
The pups have continued to enjoy the snow. This was in our backyard on Saturday.
The snow kept coming...and coming. People here in Bend aren't used to this much snow, so no one is out on the roads. Even if you know how to handle it, and have all-wheel-drive and snow tires, other people don't, so it isn't safe. We pretty much didn't go anywhere over the weekend. Choir practice and church services were even cancelled. We've had occasional breaks in the weather, though, so we have walked with the dogs a few times. It has been pretty much the same route, so only about 2/3 of a mile. I figure we get more exercise trudging through the snow than we would normally get on a walk, though.
I had already done the photo shoot for the new story, which came out on Friday. This story introduces Pam, our new character. (See link to story below.) Pam was a nice surprise gift from a special friend who wanted to see her in the stories. She will be in more.
Wisconsin is also getting snow. Here is our son-in-law and the two Wisconsin grandchildren.
I'm now officially unable to use my own hearing aids because they're too loud, even turned down as far as possible. I'm using Charlie's hearing aids turned up a notch. I can watch TV and hear everything unless there is music. For some reason, the music is always too loud and the dialog too quiet for the hearing aids. (I had the same problem with my own hearing aids.) Unitron chose this time to chang the app, and now it's very difficult to pair my hearing aids with the phone. I wish that when things work they would leave it alone!
My sense of smell is still severely affected, but I sometimes have a day or two at a time without noticing the phantom smell more than once or twice. I hope that means my natural sense of smell is returning. The neurosurgeon said it will take time to know for sure. My balance is great.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: “It Isn’t HerFault.” In this new story we meet Pam, who arrived as a Christmas gift for Maryanne, a little girl who has diabetes. Pam wants to help the child, and Veronika and Mandy give her some advice about how she can.
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