Two-and-a-half Pounds of Cute

There's been a bit of grimness around the clinic tonight, but rather than talk about that, I offer up this little bit of cuteness.



One of my overnight techs brought in one of her baby pygmy goats. I love goats; they make me smile. See? :-D

If you want to see the ugly side of cute, then look here.

Pillow Talk & Bed Wetting

One of the hardest things about having an aging pet population is dealing with all the stuff they start doing as they age that they've never done before. Inga, one of our two going-on-18 kitties, developed kidney failure over the summer, and although clinically she's been doing well, it has taken some adjustment.

One of the things we've done is put her on a special diet to help slow progression of the disease, and that seems to have helped a great deal. To feed her food that's different from everyone else's, though, we have to put her in Rosa's cage. She's become very good at letting us know when she wants to eat, but she's a grazer, which means we have to let her in and out of the cage several times during the day.

The newest twist, which has only developed in the past couple weeks, is that she's occasionally peeing on Rosa's bedding. It seems to happen primarily at night, and usually after she's been in the cage for only a few minutes. My suspicion is that she's been napping, wants to eat, but also needs to pee. The weird thing is that she hasn't been crying to get out of the cage before she does this.

At any rate, I had bought Rosa a nice dog bed from L.L. Bean after S had dumped me and we were staying with friends before moving back to Maine. The problem with this not-inexpensive bed is that the inner pillow was not washable. WTF! So after Rosa had had a GI episode or two, I had covered the inner pillow with a large trash bag to keep it protected from accidents. Last week, though, Inga had managed to pee on the end that wasn't thoroughly covered and soaked the thing. Completely.

So today I zipped over to JoAnn Fabric and bought me some heavy denim twill and some polyester batting, got out my sewing machine, and threw together a quick and easy doggie mattress. I tufted the batting but didn't tuft it all the way through the mattress, which I'm hoping won't be a problem. If it is, though, I figure I can always rip the seam, restuff, and then tuft. Anyway, Rosa was quite excited about it all and followed me around as I wrapped the new mattress in plastic bag and put it in the cover. When it was in place, she made thorough inspection and arranged it just the way she wanted it.



And she declared it good.



And tonight, Inga put it to the test. And apparently, Rosa managed to pull back the plastic bag a bit when she was nest-making, because the mattress got soaked. So now it and the cover have gone through the wash and are in the dryer, hopefully none the worse for wear.

Baking Bread

The other night, I decided to use up a bit of flour and make some no-knead bread, a recipe I got from the NY Times, with many thanks to Ted, who directed me to it. I'm not going to write out the recipe here, because I'm not sure where that would fall with regards to copyright, but you can access it for free here (login required, but it's still free).

When I got this recipe, I didn't have anything suitable as a baking dish, so one of my early Christmas presents to myself was a lovely cast iron casserole, which I seasoned myself. I'm so happy with it, too, because it lets me make things like this:



Beautiful and yummy


Speaking of the Times

FiberQat mentioned in the comments an article from the NY Times about a shortage of large animal veterinarians. That article is still available here for free at this writing (login required), but I think they archive them after a week and you have to pay.

The funny thing about this is that Becky, the veterinarian featured in the article, is who I worked for when I first moved back to Maine, doing small animal and a bit of alpaca and goat work. She works very hard, and I have a lot of respect for her. It's not something I could do now, partly because of injuries I sustained working with cattle & horses. It's unfortunate in some respects that things didn't work out for me there, but I think that it was a situation that couldn't have possibly worked in the end. On the other hand, I make about 50% more working at the emergency clinic again, which definitely has its advantages.

Also, Tim Leary, one of the dairy farmers interviewed for the article, is the husband of our hospital manager. So when mention is made of the clinic where his wife works, that's my workplace. And it's very true that we couldn't help with his cow, aside from trying to provide a little advice on the phone (I was actually working the day the cow prolapsed). We're a small animal emergency clinic and simply not equipped to deal with cows.

Unfortunately, it's a complex problem. As more and more farms go out of the farming business, large animal veterinarians have to cover increasingly large territories in order to make ends meet, to the extent that it often becomes unprofitable. Couple that with the fact there is not adequate funding to provide the levels of both basic education and advanced training that are really needed, and it becomes a situation that's very hard to fix. This is the system that we rely on for safe food, so what do you think is going to happen when it's completely broken?

Knitting

I actually did a bit last night. I got through ten rounds on the sweater sleeve, which is two increase rounds, without too much discomfort, but I'm taking it easy tonight so as not to push things. Only three more increase rounds to go, and then it's plain stockinette rounds until I reach the underarm. Then one more sleeve, then connect & do my raglan decreases, weave in the underarms, and I'll have me a nice comfy sweater to wear. Which means I'll probably get it done around August.

Did You Feel It?

That preternatural rumbling? It all originated from this very house. I was trying to keep my eyes open and get a few things done before I collapsed in a post-work heap. Then it happened and David flew into the room. "Hurry! Where's your camera?" Forget all that Antichrist bullshit, folks, because this is the First Seal:



Sylvie - our angst-ridden middle child, the Eve Plumb of our little blended family, the one who cries and purrs and begs for attention, then runs away screaming and hissing and smacking whomever happens to be in her way - was not only lying next to Poqui of her own volition, she was touching him! And a little while later, when I went upstairs to sleep, I saw this:



Practically cuddling!

The End, my friends, is nigh.

Groundhogs Lie

Who's the smarty pants who thought it would be a good idea to leave weather prediction up to a rodent? Single digit temps are predicted tonight with sub-zero wind chills through the rest of the week. It's also so dry that it feels like someone's been sandpapering the inside of my nose, and it appears that the steroid spray I'm on for chronic sinusitis has gotten me a throat infection for my week off. Is all this making me cranky? Yes, it is.

Clarification & Promotion

David wanted me to be sure to tell everyone that the Alpaca with a Twist logo, which I showed in this post, was his work with the exception of the cartoony alpaca. That part he didn't like, but it's not his company and he was overruled.

I think there was something else he wanted me to write that I can't remember, but one thing that I did want to mention is that his company is participating in a drive to supply alpaca socks to US troops in Iraq, where nighttime temperatures are getting pretty chilly. More info and links are on his website here.

Oh yeah, I just remembered. We figured out that it was not, in fact, the Republican who was wearing David's items on The View. Joy Behar was wearing one of David's scarves.

I Plum Fergot

I was originally going to call this post "Punxatawney Schmunxatawney", 'cause that groundhog appears to have been very much in error. It is cold, y'all, and supposed to remain so all week.

Anyway, about the fergettin' thing. KnitNZu asked last week about that online Norwegian radio. It's here. At the moment I'm enjoying their classical channel and looking forward to the end of my busy week in about 3 hours.

A Little Plug

Since nobody had apparently started one yet and since I had a little free time, I started a QueerKnits group on Flickr. So if you have a Flickr account and are so inclined, I'd love a little company in there.

Even a Blind Person Could Have Seen This Coming

Remember Ted Haggard? The megachurch evangelical leader who diddled with the male prostitute and did meth and then got caught? The guy the Jesus freaks wish (and pray) you'd forget? Apparently, Jesus fixed him.

All I've got to say is that his wife better plan on keeping him chained to her side if she expects him to stay "straight". They got queers in Missouri and Iowa, too, ya know. And meth, for that matter - about as much as in Colorado, according to federal data.

Annual Maintenance

I had my annual physical last Monday and all was well. My weight loss is now officially recorded in my chart - 30 pounds since last year. I still have a few more to go to reach my target, but I'm quite pleased with my progress, holiday slide notwithstanding. I also had my lipid profile rechecked, since that was one of the catalysts for changing my diet in the first place. My total cholesterol came down from 212 to 157, my triglycerides from 288 to 101, and my LDL ("bad cholesterol") from 105 to 89. Good, good, and good. My HDL stayed the same, which means I could stand to exercise a bit more, but I'm very pleased overall and those numbers mean more to me than just losing the poundage does.

No knitting content today, as I'm still giving my hands a rest. Staying away from the needles really chafes, but it's necessary at the moment. Fortunately (at least in that respect), work has been crazy busy this past week, so there wouldn't have been very much down time there, anyway. I did sit down with my Hitchhiker the other night, though, for the first time in a couple months. Nothing particularly exciting or new to report - just spinning up a bit more Junior, which I still hope to turn into a sweater someday.

Since I haven't been able to knit, I've also been spending a bit of time looking at yarn cards. For the wedding next year, I've been thinking I'd like to knit myself a vest in traditional Fair Isle patterns. I'm particularly thinking about doing it in Shetland 2000, but I may also try to do something that incorporates accent colors to go with this tartan.

A Verse or Three

Okay, I will admit to being unaware of the St. Brigid Day silent poetry reading. I'd like to say it's because I don't spend that much time online, but I'd be lying. Apparently I just don't spend THAT much time online, or at least not in the right places.

At any rate, I will here and now express my undying awe and appreciation for poets. It's obviously not an easy art, else we'd have far more Ogden Nashes and W.H. Audens and Edna St. Vincent Millays out there. And speaking of Ms. Millay (although I know that it is after midnight where I am, M-H quite astutely pointed out that it is still Feb. 2 somewhere), I'd like to open with a poem from an anthology that my grandmother gave me several years ago.

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

And now a rather more upbeat one from the same anthology:

The Passing Strange

Out of the earth to rest or range
Perpetual in perpetual change,
The unknown passing through the strange.

Water and saltness held together
To tread the dust and stand the weather,
And plough the field and stretch the tether,

To pass the wine-cup and be witty,
Water the sands and build the city,
Slaughter like devils and have pity,

Be red with rage and pale with lust,
Make beauty come, make peace, make trust,
Water and saltness mixed with dust;

Drive over earth, swim under sea,
Fly in the eagle’s secrecy,
Guess where the hidden comets be;

Know all the deathy seeds that still
Queen Helen’s beauty, Caesar’s will,
And slay them even as they kill;

Fashion an altar for a rood,
Defile a continent with blood,
And watch a brother starve for food:

Love like a madman, shaking, blind,
Till self is burnt into a kind
Possession of another mind;

Brood upon beauty, till the grace
Of beauty with the holy face
Brings peace into the bitter place;

Prove in the lifeless granites, scan
The stars for hope, for guide, for plan;
Live as a woman or a man;

Fasten to lover or to friend,
Until the heart break at the end:
The break of death that cannot mend;

Then to lie useless, helpless, still,
Down in the earth, in dark, to fill
The roots of grass or daffodil.

Down in the earth, in dark, alone,
A mockery of the ghost in bone,
The strangeness, passing the unknown.

Time will go by, that outlasts clocks,
Dawn in the thorps will rouse the cocks,
Sunset be glory on the rocks:

But it, the thing, will never heed
Even the rootling from the seed
Thrusting to suck it for its need.

Since moons decay and suns decline,
How else should end this life of mine?
Water and saltness are not wine.

But in the darkest hour of night,
When even the foxes peer for sight,
The byre-cock crows; he feels the light.

So, in this water mixed with dust,
The byre-cock spirit crows from trust
That death will change because it must;

For all things change, the darkness changes,
The wandering spirits change their ranges,
The corn is gathered to the granges.

The corn is sown again, it grows;
The stars burn out, the darkness goes;
The rhythms change, they do not close.

They change, and we, who pass like foam,
Like dust blown through the streets of Rome,
Change ever, too; we have no home,

Only a beauty, only a power,
Sad in the fruit, bright in the flower,
Endlessly erring for its hour,

But gathering, as we stray, a sense
Of Life, so lovely and intense,
It lingers when we wander hence,

That those who follow feel behind
Their backs, when all before is blind,
Our joy, a rampart to the mind.

- John Masefield

And finally, one of my own - a little Elvis haiku I wrote for Ann of Mason-Dixon Knitting:

black velvet painting
sequins on spandex sparkle
sex symbol always

In Memoriam

Molly Ivins died today. These are the first two books of hers that I bought & read, several years ago now. I was an instant fan, not just for her sense of humor, which was incredible, but most especially for her overwhelming sense of basic decency - the idea that we should each be good to our fellow humans. That and the radical idea that this nation belongs to and should be run by and for "We the People".

Her last article is here, and a tribute to her is here.

Sluttet!

I think I got that word right. As far as I can figure, it means "finished". Technically I'm only half-finished, since it's half of a pair, but this first one was a very successful experiment. I only fulled it by hand for a bit, then threw it in the dryer for about 20 minutes, so it still has pretty decent stitch definition. I need to try to figure out whether it's small enough or if more fulling is needed, but I figure I've got 11 months to decide.

I meant to write a bit about this yarn yesterday. As I've mentioned before, it's Strikkegarn from the Rauma yarn company in Norway. When I started working with it, I was a little surprised to find that it has that same "velcro" quality as Shetland wool. It doesn't say what breed the wool comes from, but I would think that spælsau is a good guess, especially since as far as I can tell, most sheep in Norway are at least the descendants of spælsau crosses. It's not a fine wool by any means - rather scritchy on the back of the neck but tolerable on the hands - but that velcrosity makes it full beautifully. And this little experiment has shown me that substituting the 3-ply Strikkegarn for the 2-ply yarns this pattern book calls for is going to work very well for fulled mittens.

A Little Geek Confession

While I was finishing this mitten up (and while I'm typing this, actually), I found me an online Norwegian radio station to listen to. Now, I don't speak Norwegian - yet. I've wanted to learn the language for a long time, for a variety of reasons, but it's not that easy to learn outside a structured program, particularly without a chance to practice. I thought it would be good for knitting a Norwegian mitten, though, to put myself in a Scandinavian state of mind. I've found that I can usually pick out enough words to figure out what they're talking about, just not enough to understand exactly what they're saying.

It also appears that Norwegians love 80's music. I don't think I've ever heard a newscast fade into "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" before. No a-ha, though, for some reason. It's a shame, 'cause that Morten Harket has still got cheekbones for days.

Barnevott...

...is Norwegian for "child's mitten." Last night my hands were feeling better, but I was tired and didn't feel like going downstairs to get the sweater. So I decided to pull out my recent purchases from Nordic Fiber Arts and cast on for my first selbuvott (Selbu mitten). I did a bit last night and worked on it today and got this far before my hands needed rest:



This is the palm side:



You can see the v-shaped Norwegian thumb gusset here. While this construction isn't quite as anatomical in some respects as a gusset that has the thumb coming out from the side (like these I made myself last year), it still provides more room for movement than the simple peasant thumb it's adapted from. Of course, mittens are intended more for warmth than dexterity, so I'm not sure that it's a terribly critical issue in most cases. Maybe I'll play around with it though when I get around to doing my own variations.

For these mittens, I'm using Raumagarn Strikkegarn, which is a 3-ply sport to DK weight yarn (I'm getting 6.5 st/in on 3mm needles). The pattern actually calls for 2-ply fingering weight Gammelserie yarn on 2mm needles, but I'm planning on fulling these to make them thicker, and my hope is that the increase in size is sufficient to account for the shrinkage. Right now they're big enough for a small woman's hand (I can get them onto my big hand, but they're super snug), and the hope is that they'll fit my niece, who will be 6 when she gets them next Christmas.

For folks who might be interested, while doing a bit of searching for links on selbuvotter I came across this site for a book on the subject that's supposed to come out this spring.

How the Wind Doth Ram!

Folks, it's cold out. According to the indoor/outdoor thermometer on our bathroom windowsill, it is currently 2.1ºF out (-16.6ºC sounds even worse). And it hasn't bottomed out yet. And it's getting rather blustery out. David left this afternoon for a week-long trade show in Salt Lake City, so the beasts and I are semi-holed up in the TV room, which is the warmest room in the house. I will likely camp out in here tonight.




No knitting today, as my hands are still being temperamental. Instead I channeled my energy into sitting down and translating a pattern for Alpaca with a Twist yarn company. The logo above is some of David's handiwork - darling, no? Anyway, they had a knitter in Peru knit up some samples that didn't turn out quite right, so Jennifer asked David if I could do a little translating work. Or maybe David volunteered me. Either way, payment in yarn was mentioned, so how could I say no?

Translating knitting patterns poses some challenges. Aside from basic questions of word choice and word order, knitting terminology is not terribly standardized in Spanish, such that very different terms are used in different regions. Couple that with the fact that there are very few good resources out there, and it's difficult to come up with a terminology that can be understood both universally and easily. I think I managed it, but I suppose the proof will be in the pudding cardigan.

RedMaple Hits the Big Time

In other news, I managed to get the rabbit ears hooked up to the telly and fiddle around enough so that we could watch some of David's products make a guest appearance on The View. One of their stage managers owns alpacas, so they trotted a pair of them out on stage and the four hosts were all wearing alpaca accessories. Of course, David's hat and scarf ended up on the blonde Republican, Elisabeth Whatsherface, instead of Rosie or Joy Behar, but I suppose Republicans get to wear alpaca, too.


Soapbox Time

Still, when she said that raising the minimum wage was bad for small businesses, I wanted to reach through the TV and slap her. Taxing small businesses at a higher rate than megacorporations because they don't have huge lobbies and can't move overseas hurts small businesses. When workers are paid a living wage, then they can actually spend more of their money (and people on the minimum will generally spend ALL their money. They don't make enough to save any of it), which helps small businesses and the economy in general. And because the current minimum wage is too little for people to live on, there are very few small businesses that aren't already paying above the minimum, anyway. Girlfriend needs to get a damn clue.

Okay, I'm climbing down now.

Photos (And Tinking) Ahead

First of all, there's my sister's mystery birthday present. Here it is on the recipient. Apparently it arrived, very opportunely, just in time for a sleet storm. I was very pleased with how this turned out and should probably sit down and write out the pattern.



Then there's a progress report on the sweater. I finished the lower body...



...and started on the first sleeve.



Now, I don't expect anyone to be able to pick this out, particularly from this small photo, but I was having some problems with this sleeve. The short seed stitch cuff worked out great, and I owe JoVE for that suggestion. Since this is supposed to be a comfy sweater, I didn't want ribbing, and this doesn't bind and is still stretchy.

No, the problem was all my own doing and it had to do with the increases. I was a bit inattentive early on and for the first two or three increase rounds, my right-leaning M1's were twisted (as are many right-leaning things, but I digress) because I didn't knit through the back loop. And on one of the increase rounds I made either two right-leaning or two left-leaning M1's. Now, I know this is not a huge deal - they're on the underside of the sleeve where nobody is likely to look, and who'd notice anyway?

Well, I, for one, would notice. And as I thought about it, I realized that what was now a niggling irritant would, by the time I started the second sleeve, become a nagging one, and by the time the sweater was finished, it would haunt me like The Telltale Heart. I'd walk up to strangers on the street, lift my sleeve, and yell, "Villains! Dissemble no more! Here, here! It is the improper leaning of its hideous increases!"

This, I decided, would not do.

So I picked up the stitches just above the cuff...



...and let 'er rip.



You will note that I decided to go magic loop for this redo. The wood needles at relatively tight gauge were hurting my hands. It didn't help that all I had when I cast on was a set of Clover dpn's. By the time I got to my LYS this morning and switched them out for some Brittanys, the damage was done. I find the cables annoying with magic loop, but at least I get to use my Addis. And with those corrections made, I was able to get back to where I had been in very short order.



Much better. And yes, I'm giving my hands a little rest.

Lazarus, Come Forth!

Brenda is back! After a distressingly long hiatus, she's got a brand new episode of Cast On up just for your listening pleasure. And, well, I even got a little mention.

The other night I was catching up on some old CBC Radio 3 podcasts, and heard a song by the band Birds of Wales. They're these cute Canadian guys and they're really cute and, um, oh yeah, they also play some nice tunes. In fact, I thought their sound was right up Brenda's alley, and their name, of course, was a natural fit. So I e-mailed her to make the suggestion and lemme tell ya, she wasted no time at all. So check them out, as well as a nice interview with Lucy Neatby, about whose DVD's everyone is raving lately (I wonder if they're available on Netflix?).

Another long overdue return to the Knitternet is Celtic Knitter, who was apparently stuck in cubicle hell for far too many months. He was missed and we are glad to have him back.

Here in my world, I've had a bit of a setback in getting my sleep issues sorted. The sleep study I had scheduled for next week was cancelled on me. They decided my issues weren't well-documented enough for insurance to cover the study (Duh! That's why I wanted the study!), and oh, we really just do sleep apnea. So after consultation with the physician's assistant, we are pursuing referral to a neurologist who deals with sleep stuff.

My hope is that we'll be able to do something without resorting to drugs, but from what I can find, I'm not sure if there are many good options going that route. The last two mornings, though, I've woken up to find David sleeping on the mattress pad because my thrashing around in my sleep has been keeping him up, so clearly something has to be done.

On the knitting front, work continues apace on the comfy sweater. Only about 18 more rounds to go on the body, and then I can set that aside to work on the sleeves. There are times when being relatively long of torso and broad of chest is disadvantageous, and this would be one of them. Still, there's a lot of winter yet to go, and I really, really want this sweater

Tomorrow, I try to tackle and conquer my desk space, which has become overrun with odds, ends, and numerous UFO's and stash escapees. It will almost certainly mean some time spent in the frog pond. Wish me luck!