Olympic News and Other Stuff

First, I want to thank everyone for all the kind comments and emails after we lost Ms. Kitti. Ya'll really helped me.

Last week, my girls and I went to the shelter, just to look, and we came home with Jamie. She is the sweetest dog in the whole world, and has done alot to help my girls heal after losing Kitti. She's a 2yr-old border collie mix. She's sort of housebroken - she only goes in her crate or in the litter box. She absolutely will not go outside, but she hasn't messed anywhere else in the house either. While Kitti was my little snuggle-puppy, Jamie loves to run in the yard with the kids. She also loves the kittens we are fostering right now. I often find her carrying one around, or a couple of them curled up with her. Though she will never replace Ms. Kitti, she has already made her own place in our hearts and our family.

In Olympic news, I finished Kate. I had my wisdom teeth pulled Wednesday, so I thought I might have to pull a Michelle Kwan and drop out, but I made it!!! My grandbaby loves her, and I already have requests to knit more for my younger girls. I used left-over yarn from grandbaby's things to make Kate's body. I think I may do the same for my older girls too, using extra yarn from the sweaters I'm making them. This pattern is really quick - a good thing since my knitting time is severely limited this semester - and it turns our really cute. After I took this, I added an i-cord tail. Grandbaby likes to pull on the tail the best. And yes, I made her "sleeping" because I can't figure out how to embroider "awake" eyes to save my life.

It has actually been nice having the past couple of days off to just chill out. I haven't done much except sleep and watch TV. I missed several days of work and school, should have been studying, but having teeth pulled seemed like a good excuse to take a much-needed break.

In memoriam

One of my neighbors hit my dog this morning. I was running out in the street to get her, and instead of slowing down, or stopping, they just sped up. They didn't even stop after they hit her. Fortunately she died instantly, and didn't suffer.

She was my sweet baby - I rescued her from the pound - she was literally on death row because she was older, and she was "unsociable." The handlers at the pound couldn't handle her without her snapping. The day I came in, she ran up to the cage door as soon as I walked in. She acted like she had known me all of her life. Of course I brought her home - and she was wonderful. She was already housebroken, though if she had to go REALLY bad and nobody was home, she would go in the bathroom. She wasn't a yappy dog, but she would sometimes bark at the cats or noises outside. We would occasionally give her pizza crusts, which she would hide in various places around the house and protect. She never ate them, but she took good care of them.

She was also really good with the baby - she would let the baby pet her, though she did growl a little once or twice. We weren't worried about her biting though - she had no teeth. She used to sleep curled up next to me, and if I was ever sad or lonely she would curl up in my lap. She also liked to lay on my yarn while I was knitting, and was constantly getting tangled up.

I am going to miss her so much - I don't even know what to do. I have lost other pets before, but I guess this is just so sudden, and so senseless. I'm at work, and I went to school this morning, but I'm still in shock. I know she was "just a dog" but she was MY dog, and she still had several good years ahead of her.

I love you, Miss Kitti, and I miss you.

The Olympic Cast-On

I am now officially cast-on for the Olympics. And I've knitted 7 whole rows on Kate. It's so cool to think that all over the world other knitters were waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting) for the torch to be lit. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see the torch enter the Olympic stadium, or to cast on a project either.

I plan to wake up early tomorrow, since I have to work, and get in an hour or so of knitting before I have to leave. I also plan to knit on my lunch break, and of course when I get home tomorrow night.

I do, unfortunately, have two tests next week, so I'm afraid I must take some time off to study. I guess I could sacrifice a couple of grades for the team - but if I get some good progress made by Monday, perhaps I can put Kate aside for a day or too without being too overcome with guilt.

Well, I'm off to bed - my kiddos crashed sometime during the parade of nations - middle child at about Serbia and youngest at the Koreas. Eldest has cast on for her Debbie Bliss Special Knits sweater. I'm wondering if she shouldn't have joined this team....

Preliminary Training....

The official name of the pattern I'm using for the Olympics is KATE. Isn't she adorable? I've raided my stash and decided to make a gray kitty with pink and purple pastel stripes. Since this is for the grandbaby, I'm making it to fit the color scheme of her room, and the cat itself will be closer in color to the cats we have. Thought about making the cat black, but I am determined to use up some of my stash on this project, and I own no black yarn at this time. I have the pink and purple left over from various baby things, and the gray left over from the Harry Potter socks I made for the book premiere.

On a slightly more somber note, I can only find 3 size 8 DPNs in my bag. I have nothing going on DPNs right now - the only UFO I have is a sweater for middle child that I'm working on my Denise needles. I use the Balene II DPNs. My daughters don't like them, they use Denise or bamboo needles. And nobody but me uses DPNs anyway. If they don't turn up by Friday I may have to go down to whatever size I have on hand. Not really a problem, since I'm making a toy and not a sweater - nothing worse for a math moron like me than having to recalculate stitches because my gauge is off.

Let the Games Begin

My daughter has talked me into it - joining the knitting Olympics. Since in doing so, I committed to completing a project in only 16 days, I have decided make a toy for the grandbaby. I'm doing the kitty-cat from knitty, and I'm planning to put jingle bells or something rattley in it.

That said, I am joining team DPN - for those of us knitting with (and poking people with) our DPNs during the event.

With school, and work, and getting divorced, I have very little time, but this may be just the thing I need to get my mind off things.

Let the madness begin......