Thank you everyone for your condolences and kind comments. We miss Lani like crazy (well, with the exception of Max, who is thrilled to be an only dog.)

We’re actually off in Arizona right now, so I’ll have vacation photos at some point after we return tomorrow. I did take blanket progress photos before we left, though:

These are slightly outdated – I have the border on the third side half done, and there are a mere two squares left to be knit. I didn’t want to travel with this blanket, as it’s not really portable, and have been working on socks here instead. I have until the Saturday after Thanksgiving to finish it and be “on time” (give or take two years), so I think I’m good to go!

It’s October. Late in October, yes, but we got snow. Then we got enough snow to fell trees and knock out our power for two days (thank goodness for the backup generator the house has!)

One of our trees decided that it didn’t want to be in New England anymore, and another shed a huge branch. Apparently comes from snow falling when the leaves haven’t fallen yet. Mother Nature seems to be… confused.

In other news, Lani is still cute, albeit cold. She’s super skinny (try convincing a deaf/blind/senile dog to eat when she doesn’t want to). She gets a little messy these days, which is why she’s not fully fluffy at the moment, so we bought her a bunch of sweaters that are machine washable (and won’t break my heart if they get ruined).

I read a bunch of guides and watched youtube videos, and finally felt like it was time to try to groom Max myself. He went to a pro when we first got him, as he was pretty untrusting of us at that point, and I was pretty sure he’d try to bite me, then I’d have to scold him, and it would be unpleasant for everyone. So with Brad as my trust assistant, we gave him a spiffy cut.

He is a stately looking dog. I don’t let him keep his beard – it mats up really badly when it grows, so for the happiness of all involved (he hates having his face brushed), we just cut it off. It took Brad quite a while to get Max to sit and look good for this picture. :p

Pattern: Boysenberry by Cookie A.
Yarn: Less than one skein of Lorna’s Laces Solemate in Boysenberry Jam
Needles: US 1.5 Knitpicks circulars
Modifications: none
Date Started: August 14, 2010
Date Finished: September 21, 2011
Time:10 hours on the first sock, 8.75 hours on the second sock for a total of 18.75 hours.

Daphne is the August edition of the Cookie A sock club.

I’m sort of torn on it… I like the pattern. I like the yarn. I don’t think I like the yarn for socks, though. The knitting is a bit arduous due to the non-elasticity of this particular yarn (A Verb for Keeping Warm, silk blend). Plus, it’s a bit heavier than standard sock yarn, but being knit at the tighter gauge… I might restart these socks in a different yarn – I’m sure I’ve got something lying around. :-p I’ll probably wait until I’m done with the square knitting for Elliot’s blanket first and in need of more portable projects again.

I had a bit of a sewing party and put together half of the blanket:

This way I can start on some of the border, but continue to work on squares as my portable project. My goal is to have this done for my nephew’s second birthday next month, and I think I’ll make it.

Experimenting with diapers (there’s a design issue involving the tail). I can almost pretend she’s a puppy and not housebroken instead of old and in failing health.

Sad about what, who knows?

So it turns out that there are actually Cookie A socks that I don’t like. After 3.75 hours of knitting, I gave up on Glynis. It was fiddly with row beginning changes, just never really flowed for me, and I was just meh. So to the frog pond it goes.

Yarn is Koigu KPPPM, P404.