Legends of the Fall...and Falling

Ah, fall colors. Colors for outfits...

That's the T-shirt that didn't fit the boy twins, Buddy and Dude. I managed, in spite of an insane week, to get some knitting done for Hannah. As part of the KAL in two of the doll groups on Ravelry, I've been knitting clothes in fall colors for back-to-school outfits for the dolls we're giving as Christmas presents to the grandkids this year. The skirt is from Jacqueline Gibb's Girly Tank Top Set for 18inch Dolls, which I made for Daphne Jr. The jacket is the February Doll Sweater, based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Ladies Sweater. The doll version is really for a smaller doll, but someone had made it in heavier yarn for an 18" doll, so that's what I did. I'm happy with the result, but I wasn't crazy about working with the yarn. It split, frizzed, caught on my fingernails and made it hard to see what I was doing.

Speaking of fall colors, I'm glad I snapped this photo of the maple tree in our yard before the heavy rains came, this one a fine example. The leaves are now on the ground.

Leaves aren't all that have been falling this week. Daphne lost her first baby tooth and wrote this note to the tooth fairy. I guess she has decided to keep her first lost tooth.

Dusty has been losing baby teeth, too. This was one we managed to find. We're wondering what the tooth fairy will bring him...besides permanent teeth, that is.

Fall weather usually means mud in these parts. We thought we might get some snow, but all we got were heavy rains. I shouldn't have washed my kitchen floor. This is what my back door looks like.

Dusty doesn't know what to think about the cold rain. He was born in southern Nevada the beginning of May, and the coldest he has been was in air conditioning. For several days, he came in soaking wet.

When it's warm enough, he has been carrying on an archeological dig in our backyard. Here are some of the relics he has unearthed. He also found a dog's tie-out line. None of this stuff came from us during our 13 years in this house. I sense a story in each item.

Leaves and teeth fall...and pups can, too. Rocky took a tumble last Sunday night when he changed his mind about climbing up onto our bed using the new dog stairs we bought for the pups. He jumped while he was turning and landed on the hardwood floor, slipping and dislocating his hip. Monday afternoon, the vet was doing X-rays, and it popped back in. She says he will be prone to dislocation, but the chances of avoiding surgery are better if we can keep his quiet for two weeks. No walks, no climbing on furniture, no playing with Dusty. The first 24 hours are the most dangerous. We are almost at a week now, and we're doing OK, but it hasn't been easy. First we kept Rocky in the play yard. Then we learned that he could walk pretty well on the deck, so we switched the pups and put Dusty in the play yard and let Rocky have the run of the deck, as they were used to.

We have our fingers crossed that it will do the trick.

With all the rain falling, they had to stay indoors a lot. We ended up having to watch Rocky in the living room and let Dusty fend for himself in the kitchen.

Dusty, in the meantime, is still gaining weight. He is now over 14 lbs., more than half Rocky's weight.

Vintage Stitchers was cancelled this week.

What's on my needles: A dress for Hannah. The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” is still on hold while I work on doll clothes. Still waiting for the second sleeve.

What's on my Featherweight: Doll clothes. No sewing this week because it's hard to sew and watch the pups at the same time.

What's on my wheel: Put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still no audiobook in action, but I'm listening to practice music for the Park City Singers' Holiday Concert. Still reading Corinna: A Sweet & Clean Historical Romance by Lauren Royal. I'm still liking it.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, 2013, always a nice choice.

What's my tip of the week: If you need to know how much yarn a project took, you can weigh what you have left and subtract from what you had to start with, or you can weigh the completed project, before adding buttons and other items, adding the tails you cut off to the project on the scale. This is especially useful if you want to make another of the same thing with the same material and want to know if you have enough yarn.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

High Fiber--Flipping Out!

I finished my first woven scarf:

If you look up close you can see very uneven selvedges and tension on the right end (where I started), but what you can see on the left side (where I finished) is my improvement as I went along. This scarf will be a great reminder of how far I've come! The second one is going better. My weaving is much neater and more even.

I also finished the lap blanket, which I wove before making the scarf. I used the warp that was already on my loom:

What I learned from finishing these projects: It's much easier to hemstitch your project while it's still on the loom. My temporary knots kinked up when I blocked the lap blanket, not so much with the scarf. I trimmed with a rotary cutter, but will have to re-trim after each is washed again. I snuggled up in the lap blanket Saturday night. It's warm!

Common Threads met on Thursday at Joanie's. Georgette came early to get set up and bring some upside-down cake for us to eat. Lynda brought some fruit.

This is the towel Joanie made using the warp she left on the loom for me. It was her last project from her loom (now my loom). She hasn't washed it yet, but otherwise, it's all finished. The warp is cotton and the weft is cotton chenille. It's reclining on her elevator chair. I think it looks great!

It looks very different from my lap blanket, even though it was made with the same warp. Just goes to show, when you make a project all in one color, the texture shows up better. When you use different colors, the pattern looks different.

 

While I was at Joanie's, I took a photo of the quilt she and I made together  in 2006. The colors are shades of brown, gold, forest green and gray. We had a lot of fun. Our friend Julie quilted it.

 Joanie commemorated the fun with a great label...with an insert with our names!

Now to the "flipping out" part. I almost didn't get this blog post out! On Sunday, I had what could have been a close call. I fell outside the grocery store on my way home from church. I think I got tangled in my long skirt and turned my ankle, which created the momentum that took me down. I thought I was OK when I got up, walked into the store, bought my three items, said hello to people I knew on the way out and drove home. I felt a little stiff when I got home. We Skyped with DD's family while I had an ice pack on the affected area. When I got up from that I was in serious pain. The urgent care clinics were all closed, so DH drove me to Emergency. I could hardly walk, it was so painful. After taking my history (total hip implant on the side I fell on), they took me into X-ray and took pictures of the hip. The diagnosis based on the X-rays was: possible dislocation of my artificial hip, although the doctor couldn't understand how I could even walk, let along not be screaming. More consultation with the orthopedists, more X-rays from a different angle (because metal on top of metal looks the same as metal inside metal), more waiting while I prayed it would work out. Finally, the doctor said the new X-rays showed that the implant was clearly OK. I have contusions, tissue damage, muscle spasms, but no dislocation and probably no fractures. The doctor said to "keep moving." I have some pain pills and later today I'll get a muscle relaxant. I'm taking a kitchen stool around with me, using it like a walker. It's good to live in an area where there are many more orthopedists per capita than average because of ski injuries.

DH is still the dislocation specialist (finger, shoulder), and no new joint replacement for me (to add to total hip and both thumbs' trapezium/LRTI).

 

Now for your baby fix: Zachary is 11 months old! Here he's doing pattycake (or maybe just applauding my fantastic moves in front of the grocery store). I need to give him some cards to hold up, all with a "10!"

I will be skipping Silver Sneakers today! However, Benjamin Levisay will be premiering his first podcast, starting with an interview with Debbie Macomber! Check it out!

What's on my needles: Christmas Waffle Cardigan, more progress made this week, and Dogwood Blossoms.

What's on my loom: My second scarf, about 24" long now.

What's on my Featherweight: Still the Delectable Pathways blocks, about 8 blocks to go. I'm not sure about the stairs, but maybe no entering my fiber studio downstairs for a while.

What's on my wheel: Still the Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon," almost finished.

What's on my iPad: Listening to the Weavecast podcast, and The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jaimie Ford from Audible.com.

What's in my wine glass: Salmon Creek Merlot, 2011. The big bottle! It will last a few days. Or maybe not. It's my painkiller of choice. I'll do a makeup day after Easter on my Lenten fast.

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook, using the iPad for photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.