A New Dog and Old Blanket

Well my first foster dog was adopted and his name was changed. The great thing here is that a dog went from being scheduled to be euthanized to finding a great home. Have to give credit to the lab-rescue team of ladies who do such a good job.  I was missing have a dog again, and so on Saturday I was at Chapters looking through books on dogs when I got a call. Seems there was another dog in London in need of rescue. Now this was about a 2 hour drive and I had already made some arrangements to go to Kempenfest in Barrie. I don't think my SO was to happy when I came home from chapters with a change of plans. Anyways it took about 6 hours but today I am hanging out with my new friend Archie. What a great guy and disposition.

I finished my Traffic Island socks and have blocked them. Now it is just the blanket I am still working on. I will probably start something else. I have a bunch of shawls in mind but we'll have to see which one and what yarn I have in my stash. There are no pictures today as Blogger or my computer seems to not want me to post any. It seems every time I try it will not bring up my files. Oh well. Sometimes I guess the sites have bad days just like we do. Congrats by the way to all who attended the sock summit. Looks like they had fun.

Public Knitting

Timberline socks

 Today I took my father to one of his doctors appointments. While I was waiting for him I brought with some socks that I was working on. It's funny because most times I seem to be very shy about knitting in public. Is it really the stigma of a guy knitting that gets to me. I am embarrased to say that it is.

Even in the waiting room I found a corner of the room where I could work on the socks while waiting for my dad. After a while one of the girls at the front desk asked what I was knitting. I brought up my sock and we then had a great conversation about projects I was working on and how I was a bit shy to knit in public. The one girl said that she believed a guy who was not shy to show his feminine side was really one that was confident about himself.

My Daughters first Sock

Given that in fact I was shy I am not really sure what that means for me. LOL

The first picture was a quick knit of Lucy Neatby's Timberline socks. It's the second picture (the one with the thumb) I am most proud of. The reason? Well it is the first sock that my daughter knit. I have urged her to try socks and for a while she was intimidated. That is why I was so excited that she made this one. Of course the second one is still yet to hit her needles but that is okay.


I guess being a male knitter is still a complicated matter to me even though it is something that I really love and enjoy doing.

Shawl Marathon finally done.

 It feels like it's been years since I finished a project. Normally I was used to doing 2 or three projects a month at a minimum, but that was before I caught the Shetland Shawl Marathon Bug.

It is a given that I love doing lacework. Funny thing I think for a guy to say but I find it so artistic that I love the finished projects. I have done quite a few works of Estonian Lace, so awhile back started checking in on Shetand lace.

It wasn't long before I purchased Sharon Millers Heirloom Knitting book. Wow, was it ever filled with great stitch patterns. Not so many finished patterns but I decided to try one of the easier shawls in the book.

What I didn't realize was how long this one would take me to finish. It was knit in the round, so the first thing is that you have no idea what it actually looks like while you are doing it. Scratch that, actually it looked like a big lump of knitted wool. It was only when I got to doing the edging that little by little was I able to get an idea of how it was coming along. This after over a month of knitting. The pattern was actually quite easy, and it was just the edging at first that I had to get used to. Normally I did a pick up all stitch edging, but this one worked it's way around 1 stitch at a time every other row of edging. I already spoke in a prior entry about how many stitches that took.

I originally had 2 skeins of Zephyr lace, but ended up going back twice more for another 2 skeins. Luckily this was available in the dye lot that I had to match.

The shawl marathon, or at least this one is now finally over. I don't know if I am as excited on this piece as I was on others or just relieved to be done. Either way it certainly is an interesting piece. It is done in the colorway of sage green, which is hard to tell by the picture. Here you can see the edging up close. It is just finishing blocking, and I will try and get a few more pictures soon of it wrapped on something the way it was meant.

Well, now that it is done I just have to finish my sampler blanket. In the meantime I have started a quick pair of socks for my kid. I am doing another of Lucy Neatby's socks called "Timberline Toes". A very easy quick knit. This sock has the garter short row heel. I just finished the first. I am still not convinced I like this type of heel better then the heel flap, however, it does work nice for variegated yarn.

I also will probably end up doing another Estonian project from Nancy Bush's book. I must say that book has more projects that I like than any other book I own.

Savings Lives

As most of you know my dog of over 13 years passed away last month. It was really weird not having a dog in the house given I have had one for over 20 years. I really wasn't ready for another big commitment, but on the other side I really missed having one around the house.

Yes, I admit, I am a big time dog lover. I did a bit of research on the internet I came across the idea of fostering dogs. This is the taking in of dogs that have no homes and have no one yet to adopt them. You take care of them until they are able to find forever homes. I thought this was a great way to help out animals that needed help, all while being able to have a dog back in the house.

I checked out a few groups that foster, and signed up to the LAB-RESCUE group. It took about a week after submitting an application that I was contacted and interviewed. Yes, they said, I was a good candidate to foster, but they were going to look for a dog that was easy for my first time.

Well, about a week later I got a call that they had a dog for me to foster. I was so excited and made arrangements to meet with them and pick up the dog a few days later. Little did I know what would be there to meet me.

Timbit, as he is called is a 130lb Yellow Lab. I don't think I have ever seen a dog that big. He was huge. His story was that someone found him collapsed on their lawn and called animal control. They picked him up and kept him in the shelter. Given his size, if the rescue didn't step in to help he probably would have been euthanised. I don't know how he got that way but he was just huge. It was difficult for him to walk but he was just so happy to have some attention. He had bed sores on his legs, and the muscles would shake when he stood and eventually he would have to sit again.

I got Tim in the car, and the two of us made are way home. The first time I took him for a walk we were able to get about 20 paces and then he needed to lie down and rest. This is how it went with 4 rests to get to the end of my property line, which is about 70 ft. And then of course 4 more rests to get back. Although he was filled with a ton of love, Tim is in bad shape. Who would let him get like this and then toss him away.

In the first few days I saw that Tim loved to get into the garbage to see what he could find. Of course now it is under lock and key and I am teaching him to start to leave it alone. Not an easy job for a food minded dog.

The first week of fostering has now passed. I have learned so much about patience and understanding. I hope Tim can find a great home, but until then I will love and care for him. Together we will slowly try to get some of the weight off so again Tim can run and play like other dogs.

Moving Forward

The one thing about life is we have a choice whether to keep moving forward or to stop and just keep looking back. I have always been a big believer in the forward choice. I have been really busy these days but thought I should write a bit anyways.

I am still working diligently on my Shetland Shawl and Sock Sampler Blankets. I don't think I have ever had a period of knitting where I worked for so long without coming to the end. That being said I am getting there. I am over half way through the edging on the shawl. Finally I can start to see how it is going to look. It has certainly taken alot more yarn then I though but hope that this last skein will do it. I figure that the edge had 800 stitches and that it required me to knit about 1600 rows to complete. Since on average each row has about 20 stitches in it the edging involves about 32,000 stitches or more. I also figure it takes about 30 minutes to complete the 24 rows in each edging repeat meaining the edge should take in all about 30 hours. Who would have thought. I just have to keep going forward and at some point I am going to get there. God, I hope that I like it when I am finished given the time.

The sampler is coming along. My daughter laughs a bit at the colours but I am using up all my leftover sock yarn which is nice. Of course, it also means buying some more before it will be finished.

My kid finished her first sock and was thrilled. Me too. Of course now she has the dreaded second sock syndrome.

Finally, I have decided that I am going to become a dog foster parent. I really miss having a dog around the house and it's been about 20 years since I have been without. In the morning when I come out of my bedroom it is just so strange to not head down the stairs and a second later feel a dog, whooshing past me, racing to the bottom. And it really is weird to walk into the house and not have that friendly greeting. I think with fostering I can help out other dogs that need a home and yet not jump into a long commitment of owning a dog. I do think that will come but I think I need a bit of time. I am excited about this and am waiting for them to find me a foster dog. Feel like a kid I am so excited about that.

It's almost exam time for my son, so I am sure he is going to be stressed this week and then starts the summer officially. At least for a parent, summer really begins when school ends.

I'll keep you posted to what happens with my shawls and fostering. And of course whether my kid casts on her second sock. Yep, just keep moving forward and everything will be alright.

A Good Friend - A Sad Day

Riley Chilling at the Cottage

 Today was a tough day, and this may be a tough blog to read. For the last 13 years I have shared my life with my dog Riley. I have to thank my friend Jane for this. She played on the football team I coached, and one game said that she had rescued this dog but because she lived in an apartment really couldn't keep him.

It seemed that this young dog had been a Christmas present to a child, but after a few months the child had got bored and no one paid any attention to this dog. She said they were keeping him in his cage almost all day long, and that they were going to just let it loose and not let it back in.

I already had an older German Sheppard at the time and really wasn't sure I wanted another dog. Jane was unrelenting and asked me to just see him and try him over the weekend. As you can guess, from the moment I met him, I fell in love and of course took him into my home and my life.

Princess Riley

 My Sheppard was a great dog also but was more my dog then the families dog. Riley, however was truly the families dog.

The first few years were pretty fun as Riley loved to escape and roam free and each day I would be out trying to find him and catch him. I had a fenced in yard but no matter, Riley, doing his best Houdini impression would find some way to escape and run around. He was not trying to get away, but really just loved to meet people and walk down the street with all.

Most time he would find a place to crawl under the fence and each time I would go into the backyard and pound down another post trying to keep him in for his own safety. I remember the one time he got away, and I was amazed because I was sure I had closed off all escape routes. After I got him back I found that last spot that he escaped from and proceeded to pound down the fence to close it off. As I did so I let him know, while he stood behind watching me, that I finally had closed off all escape routes. After pounding down the last fence post I turned triumphantly to let him know I had won, only to see nothing. Yes, he had escaped again while I had my back turned. I could only laugh. And of course at the cottage, he loved to find his way to the road so he could visit the other cottagers. He had such a gentle and friendly disposition, and a strong need to make friends with everyone. My neighbors would laugh every day as they heard me yelling his name while I walked the cottage road looking for what neighbor my dog decided to hang with on that particular day.

Riley loved to hang at the cottage where he had to be on every boat ride, sitting at the front with the wind in his hair. We spent many years doing agility training. He was good at it but usually half way through each class he decided that he had enough exercise and would then lie down to watch the other dogs. I could coax him all day but he was done and just invited me to sit and watch .

Our Last Moments

A few weeks back, Riley became very lethargic and I knew something was wrong. He had already had problems with his legs as is normal with a lot of dogs his age, but this was different. He had no appetite and no energy. I took him to my vet and we saw that he had a virus. Thank god, I thought as the anti-bio tics worked after a few days and he perked up.

Unfortunately a few days later the lethargy returned. No longer was he at my back door a thousand times a night wanting to go outside. And no longer was he at my back door a few minutes later wanting to come back in. Nor was he sitting in front of me, panting, and asking for a cookie. No, now he would just lie quietly on the floor and gaze into nothing.

Instead of bounding and jumping while I prepared his dinner, instead he lay there and so I sat beside him feeding him by hand. He no longer had the energy to chomp through his milk bones, so instead I sat and broke them up and fed them to him little by little. We went back to the vet for tests, and his vitals had gotten worse and x-rays showed a mass in his stomach. This time no pills nor love would nurse him back to health. Riley my good friend over the last 14 years had come to his time.

Today at noon I took my beloved pet to the vet and held him while he was put down. I choked back the tears, even though I knew he had a good life and was loved all through it. I left and by the time I got home I sobbed uncontrollably. The house seemed so empty.

My dog Riley passed away and may he find a new place to romp. He was a great dog, and I loved him greatly. He will be missed.

I am writing this with a heavy heart. It is the cycle of life, and it was the best decision to save him from any future pain. But it is still hard. And I know it will be a while until the vision of him lying quietly on the table leaves my head.

I love you Riley and thank you for all the joy and happiness and laughs that you brought to my life.

R.I.P.

Where is May Going?

Wow, it's almost June. Seems like we are  skipping the month of May yet here we are at the May 2-4 weekend. Time is flying. I am working away at my scrap sock sampler blanket, while trying like crazy to finish the border of my First Shetland Shawl. I would post pictures but given it is done in the round it really does not look like much at present.

For those of you who have read my blog, last year I was forced to sell off my cottage due to a family dispute. This is the weekend that I would have been going up to open the cottage. My boat still sits in my garage, taunting me every time I go in. I will miss sitting on my rocker bench, knitting as I listen to the waves wash up onto the shore. Of smelling the nightly fire that my best friend and I would sit at late into most nights. When I think about it, I know I will miss a lot. Really I try  not to think about it.

To help with the "loss" I have pledged to try and put my lawn into the best shape possible. Usually it has been a losing battle, but maybe with me home weekends this year I can actually have my yard looking good. That would be great as I wouldn't have to worry about my neighbors, walking by, and shaking their heads. Now, I don't want you to think that I left it a mess, but it always feels as if there lawns were looking much better manicured.

I also don't think I can go up to visit my best friend, who's cottage was right beside mine. I just can't imagine standing at his cottage, looking over at someone else in my cottage.

On the other side, I kind of feel happy for the family that bought my place. I had 10 great summers, hanging out with my kids. We had no Cable TV and video games were not allowed. Instead we would do things like, walk an talk, swim and play games. Things like sitting around a fire laughing. The last few years my kids stopped coming up as they were teenagers, and hanging with dad wasn't the priority. Now I guess it's time for another family to have those times. To create those memories.

I really think it is going to be different without the cottage.  But of course different does not have to be worse. As we go through life, we continually encounter places where the road jogs in a most unexpected way. All we can do is to follow it and enjoy whatever journey it takes us to. So here's a toast to a summer of new Journeys!