Trial Run

 

Well.....Pup did NOT have her surgery yesterday. After getting up at 5 am and then packing up to head out to the critter hospital we were home by 10. We had our consultation but the surgeon had an emergency fracture to deal with first so she decided it would be better to book another earlier slot on Monday and try again. Of course, with our luck, as soon as we got in the door the surgeon called us and said she could now fit Pup in but we were an hour away and had stopped at her favorite eatery and fed her some chicken nuggets on the way home since she hadn't eaten since 5 the night before. 

Now about that surgery....this is not Pup's actual xray but it's what we saw when the vet showed us hers. You can see that the left leg is above the hip socket. We were more than surprised to hear that what they are going to do is just saw off the top of the leg bone and let it float free among the muscles where it will eventually stabilize itself. Pup will be disabled for life but she won't be in pain as bone will no longer be touching bone. They can do a total hip replacement but it's not recommended for a dog her age or size or activity level. In other words, she will live out her days as a couch potato which I think she is more than happy to do. Que sera, sera...Since Pup has to spend Monday night in the hospital we booked a room in a nearby hotel this time to be close by. The recovery period for this surgery will be two weeks as opposed to two months for the total hip replacement. 

More drama ensued that afternoon when our vet, who promised to pay, balked at the price and offered to just pay $1000 of it. Mind you, they told us they would pay for it all several times and we not only went to the surgeon they recommended, we opted for the cheapest and easiest surgery which is the one I described above. The Mister went back and forth with them several times until they finally agreed to pick up the bill. We hope....

The day wasn't a total waste. I turned the rest of it into trash bag liberation day. I've had enough of the crinkly, wrinkly mess on everything I am sitting and sleeping on so off it all came from the furniture in my little pillow fort area of the living room. What a difference.

Today

 

Today is the big day for Pup with the surgeon so if I disappear for a while it's because I will be trying to adjust to whatever fate throws at us today. I am so incredibly worn out from all these months of worry and work that it's going to take everything I have to get through it. Wish me luck. I am going to need it. 

Week 12

 

We are officially 3 months into this mite-y nightmare and things don't look much different from where we started around here. We've piled up the furniture and bags of stuff we want to get rid of but in order to get it out of here it takes two of us to get it to the top of the driveway for a special trash pick up and we can't leave Pup unattended that long so we live among the piles.

Since the downstairs couch was ground zero it is going. I'll order a new one when things calm down a bit. In the meantime I bought The Mister a recliner and had it delivered from Wayfair last week so he would have somewhere to sit. We didn't cover it with plastic but we do keep it covered with an old duvet that is washed every night just to be safe. The Mister still has a bit of a rash in a few spots but nothing like we saw in the past. 

Pup and I are still camped out in the living room among the plastic covered stuff upstairs. I'm going to have to go through all those bags one day but I just can't right now. Just looking at the bags gives me the willies. I should probably just toss them all but I might have somethings in them that I would regret tossing in the future so I'll wait until I've regained my senses and some perspective.

I'm still having those random hives on my arms but the spots are growing smaller and smaller. My big breakthrough this week has been being able to go without socks. The Mister and I have spent the last three months covered from head to toe at all times in order to protect ourselves and contain whatever we might be carrying. Having bare feet in the house is a major victory because the memory of what those mites did to my ankles and legs is still pretty fresh. As I've said before it's not just a physical battle we are fighting-it's a mental one as well. At least now it looks like there is a victory on the horizon. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Well, there it is. The big finish. That's me cutting off the Needles and Pins sampler. I put the last stitch in Sunday morning. 

This is a pretty pitiful mug shot but it's the best I could do in my living room campground on a cloudy day. I started it in 2011. This was the year Son, Daughter and Nephew each got married and I was fired up by all the weddings to stitch a wedding sampler for me and The Mister. Many times while I was working on it I wondered if the marriage was going to last as long as the stitching process but we're still hanging in there in spite of it all....lol.

I was all fired up to get this latest baby sampler started but alas, that was not to be. It seems I don't understand centimetres and this thing that looked so small in the photo is in fact BIG. Too big to gift to someone. It's 24 inches long. No one has that kind of wall space so I have sent away for a smaller one from the same company. It has to get here from the UK so it will be a while.

Until it gets here I suppose I'll work on my Village Quaker-one of many projects I've got waiting patiently for a little attention. 

 

Still Counting

 

I'm still pulling off the post-its. I should clarify that Thursday is only our consultation with the surgeon. There is a possibility we may get the surgery that day but no guarantee. 

We are still camped out 24/7 on the floor. Pup has about as much patience left with all this as I have. She snapped at me yesterday when my foot accidentally bumped into her while she was asleep. That was a first. 

As long as I am sitting or sleeping right next to her I can keep her calm and quiet. I've got a pile of stuff to do to keep me occupied but none of it is comfortable. The floor is much harder than I remember it. As a first grade teacher I spent hours on the floor with the kids without a problem. Now my hips, backs and knees are screaming that enough is enough.

I still managed to get the socks almost to the heel flap.

And...Number 9 is all attached and getting its yoke knit. All this is pretty impressive considering I not only had all those body aches this weekend but a nasty migraine as well. 

Funny You Should Ask.......

 

Someone asked me to do a post about weaving for beginners the day I posted about Pup's sling that I made out of a cotton tote bag.  It was perfect timing because the bag I used for Pup was the bag that I kept my lease sticks and other weaving doo dads in. 

When I took them out to cut up the bag I looked at them in curiosity. My poor Wolf Pup has been packed up since 2019 when we started the ill fated and never ending remodel. I am going to have to do a lot of re-learning when it comes to getting back into weaving. It's all a blur but I do recall those lease sticks being very important. 

I actually stick them in and secure them to the cross before I move the warp to the loom. 

I'm also going to have to figure out what to do with my warping board. I used to hang it on the wooden pantry door in the old kitchen but that's gone now and I am NOT putting it on my new doors and risk scratching them up. 

The method I used for getting everything where it needs to go was a hybrid of lots of tutorials I  have watched over the years. This one from WEBs on YouTube is the best. It's the one that pretty much sums of what I do and how I do it. I'm not sure where I got the idea for the counting threads but I do remember they are a life saver-like a life line in lace knitting. 

My own posts and photos are helping me remember some of the tricks I used. Clothespins keep everything straight and counted while I thread the heddles. 

I also remember it takes a lot of time and patience to go through all the many steps but I remember I enjoyed each one very much. It's that very slowness that's appealing. It forces you to settle down and become very mindful. 

Of course I need more dishtowels like I need more socks-meaning I don't. I have a HUGE box of towels already just sitting here waiting for me to figure out where to put them when I finally get the new kitchen sorted out.

But I also have an 8/2 cotton weaving stash that is now even bigger than this one from an old photo so we know how that's going to go. I have a thing for buying kits and I get most of mine from Cotton Clouds. The price will make you swoon but one project can last for months and months so it's worth it. In fact, I have a new kit on the way. (!)

It won't be long (I hope) before I'll be back doing this again. 

I miss the rhythm of it. You can rid yourself of a lot of frustration beating that fabric good and tight.

Even though every step is as fiddly as it gets it is all very rewarding. I do need to up my hemming game though. I'm pretty sloppy about it. 

So....I'll be more than happy to do some real step by step weaving posts one day-as soon as we get through all this Pup drama and my living room looks like this again. Thanks for asking!

In the Works

 

I finally got bored with knitting all day and dug out some other projects. Hopefully this will be a done deal by the next Tiny Needle Tuesday. I hope so because I would LOVE to start something new.

I also got Audun out again. I've got 57 blocks completed and this lot will make 6 more. I have no idea how many I need or want at this point so I guess I'll just keep it up until I run out of yarn.

That may be a while because I just realized I had bought another huge pack of these mini balls before all the stuff hit the fan last winter.