Yarn: HaldeCraft HandDyed Tiptree in Serentiy
Pattern: Waves and Piers Socks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott
Started: 08/30/12
Completed: 09/22/12
Notes: none
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Well, we had that one big barking squealing going-for-the-neck episode wherein I had to pull Corwin (“Dog”) off Lindy (“Other Dog”) by her tail, and since then we’ve had two small yip/squeak episodes that ended when I yelled “HAIGH!” (Southern accent included for your amusement) louder than they were barking…. and other than that, it pretty much looks like this around the house. They’ve been bonding together in the back yard over defending the house and their humans from Evil Lizard Overlords (the back porch is now completely lizard-free, and I imagine any survivors of the slaughter will tell nightmare-inducing bedtime stories to their broods). Dog still isn’t sure she wants to snuggle closely quite as much as Other Dog does (I imagine that will change when the weather gets cold) and Other Dog needs to find a better way to communicate the need to go outside when she needs to go. But other than that, it’s surprisingly peaceful. Other Dog is so …. hahahaha, “handi-CAPABLE” that I often forget she only has three legs, and do a double-take when I notice her limp-hopping. Really, other than scratch behind her left ear, there isn’t anything she can’t do. She will play fetch for hours if we didn’t get bored, and she loves to go for fast walks with Tim. She’s better at fast walks because her hop is more pronounced when she goes slowly. We’re not walking her very far yet, not even to the dog park, until we can get a good feel for how long she can go before she gets tired. So far she seems to be petering out near the church about six blocks away (the dog park is a few blocks beyond that). And she gets along great with the cats, but seems a bit perturbed that the darker cats, the ones that have her fur color, don’t seem to want to snuggle and/or nurse. The other day I saw Tiny Kitten doing the thing she used to do to Old Dog — purring and head-butting Other Dog’s chest, and rubbing her head underneath the dog’s chin. SO CUTE. And now that I’ve written a great post on how everyone is getting along, I imagine I’ve doomed us to see the inside of an emergency vet clinic within the next 24 hours. Because that’s how the Universe likes to laugh at me.
Yarn: Zen Garden Serenity Sock Well. That title pretty much says the whole thing.
We have a birthday trifecta; Uncle Joe’s birthday is on June 9th, my mom’s birthday is June 10th, and Tim’s mom’s birthday is June 11th. This year was Unca Joe’s 70th birthday, so we were doing something special on Sunday with caterers and cake and good times. But that also meant something needed to be done Saturday, as my Mom and Dave were coming into town. I didn’t know that Mike and Sharon, friends of Aunt Gay’s, were also coming into town, or I would not have suggested to Tim that maybe he could make dinner. I was thinking something like spaghetti, or a potato dish… you know, something easy, casserole-like, that could be dished out between six people. Turns out it was nine (me, Tim, Aunt Gay, Uncle Joe, Mike, Sharon, Mom, Dave, and Barbara) and that after lunch, Tim said… “I was thinking of Moroccan.” Who’s got two thumbs and can whip up a delicious Moroccan dinner for nine, including dishes that even picky eaters will like, and most of which are Lorena-allergen-free? THAT GUY.
They almost did. I was so excited when I fired these; I had eight mugs, with the frames painted in four different colors (two each) and the insides of the mugs glazed to match the frames. Then I overglazed one of each color in Gray Spice, and one in Spiced Cream. After firing, my plan was to print out the quotes, stencil them on, and go over then with my Porcelaine pen. I took the mugs to the bookstore where I have plans to sell them, and the owner was thrilled. We bounced around a couple of quote ideas, and I was given the thumbs up. I took the mugs home (all safely boxed up) and then got involved in other things for about three days (New Dog). When I opened the box to begin the stenciling and penning process… I noticed that a few of the mugs were starting to crackle. Or I guess I should say “craze.” Crazing primarily happens (in my experience) when the glaze cools faster than the ceramic piece, making small cracks in the glaze. This can happen immediately or even years later, and I’ve seen it happen both if I take something out of the kiln too early, or in using a microwave to reheat my coffee, even on a mug I’ve had for years.
True enough, though, we did have one, and it was coming straight for us. “Coming straight for us” isn’t the doom-and-gloom, flooding and boats in your yard, Jim Santore kind of weather, though. Gainesville is pretty much smack in the middle of the state, so even the really big storms tend to burn themselves out a bit before they get to us. I’m not saying it can’t be dangerous — that one year we got four right after each other, every weekend for a month….? That was tiring, and dangerous since we hadn’t had a big storm in years; many trees came down all over town the first week, and it seemed like as soon as GRU was done cleaning up, we’d get another storm, and everything that was loosened the week before would topple over. But for the most part, we can count on rain, wind, wind gusts, more rain, some minor flooding (I’m talking, like, six inches to a foot), and a few trees down all over town. Some people three or four houses down have a dead pine, struck by lightning about six months ago, and I was very surprised that it didn’t come down in the wind. Mostly all we got was rain. Which we always need.
Yarn: HaldeCraft HandDyed Tepper in Raspberry Beret I made the three purple squares. Co-knitted with Rhea, Laura De., Laura Da., and Sharon for our lovely friends Caitlin and Greg and their first little “finished object” together. (That’s not their baby modeling, that’s Lala’s Jasper, my imaginary nephew. I mean “imaginary” as in “I like to imagine he is my nephew” not “he’s not real.” Clearly he’s real, as anyone who has thrown their back out picking him up can attest to.
A couple of weeks ago, Tim and I went to go see Star Trek. We got there waaaaay early so Tim asked if I wanted to go inside and look at the dogs. I was all OMG IS THIS A TEST? Of course I want to look at dogs! I love dogs! But I don’t want Tim to think that if I say “who’s a woogie woogie woogie” that it means I want to take a dog home. I mean, I can be pretty vocal about “who’s an adorable dog” but just because the food looks good doesn’t mean I want to order it… does that make sense? I think that’s why I made such a good Foster Mom, when I was doing that. I loved them because they were dogs, but I never felt like I was the dog’s permanent home (except for Bridgett). So. We go in to look, and even though we’re just looking, still somewhere in the back of my head is a voice saying “doesn’t like cats; too small; too yippy; likes cats but doesn’t like other dogs; all these dogs say “loves to snuggle on couch” and we don’t allow dogs on the couch”… in other words, I was judging them as if they were potential pets, and they were all falling short. But then Tim taps me on the shoulder and points to a break in the massive crowd of people (seriously, it was crazy)… and there’s a big yellow-brown dog with only three legs. I can not tell you how much I want a three-legged dog. I should almost not be allowed to have one, I want one that much. Not in some weird pervy way, ICK. But I love the triumph of “living in the now” that allows animals to overcome amputations in a way that people don’t, and I love the idea of giving a good animal a loving home when they otherwise might be hard to place. Do you know three-legged dogs are hard to get adopted? ISN’T THAT CRAZY?! Who wouldn’t want a three-legged dog?! But I also didn’t want to get a three-legged dog JUST to get a three-legged dog. What if it didn’t like cats? What if it was a boy? (Turns out I had mis-remembered, Tim said “no more boy cats, ever” not “no more boy pets.”) What if it didn’t like other dogs? What if it’s very, very old? I don’t have a problem with old dogs, but if we’re getting a Backup Dog, the point of that is kind of that the dog is younger than the Current Dog. What if it just wasn’t a good fit for our family? I mean, getting a dog just to be able to say “I have a three-legged dog” is a shitty thing to do, if you or one of your other animals or it winds up being unhappy in the long run. And we were going to a movie, it was busy and nobody was around who could let the dog out to play with us, so… we left. I love Wild Iris Books, I truly do – but their future landlord is not exactly speedy on the construction, and you probably remember that after ICFA in March I was kind of like, “I need to spend more time with people before I become feral”. OK. More feral. And as much as meeting twice a week was getting hard to do – especially a mid-day Tuesday meeting, the six weeks before Christmas (retail can be time consuming that time of year! True story!), I really did need that human interaction.
Broken Shelves Books & Art has been the answer to that. This place has everything I love. Good lighting. Used books. Beer. Comfy seating. An owner that clearly wants us to be there (Books-a-Million, I am still giving you the hairy eyeball). We’ve been hanging out there every Thursday for about a month now (and one Saturday), and I’m just so happy to be back to meeting with people again. Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband and I love my pets… but they’re equally about as chatty. So to have human interaction? With people who talk about more than what’s in my head? AWESOME.
So I’ve been trying this new thing lately; adding … well, I’ve always called them “press molds” but I think the current term is really “sprig molds”….? Anyway, adding little pieces I’ve pressed out of clay onto poured mugs and planters. I found a great one a couple months ago, for some sugar skulls, and that kind of got the whole thing rolling. G-ma had a few that I’d never used, or that I had poured slip into but then never really known what else to do with, and so I broke those out as well. She had a great one of naked pin-up girls, guns, and drink paraphernalia, and I think I can have a lot of fun with that one. But what I’m doing right now is more seeing which piece fits better on which mug or planter. I first thought I would make a wide variety — all the skulls! on all the mugs! — but then I came to my senses and realized that if I make a wide variety, I’m going to have to bust my ass replacing a wide variety. So instead I’ll figure out what works best with each piece, and then take any custom orders as they come. Above is my second round of trials, and I have a few in the kiln (as I write this) that I’ll be able to take out in about a hundred degrees or so. I’m really excited! |
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