Getting on with life

There have been a lot of changes in my life since I lost my beloved Allen.  Some of my fires went out, and new ones started up.  Allen loved my knitting and encouraged me a lot, but without him, I have not been doing much knitting.  Thus, no posts.

Instead, I became lonely -- then did something about it.  I met someone new, and we have embarked on a life together.  Then we combined our households in a new home.  Now we have adopted a small rescue dog.

I have not had a dog since my kids grew up.  I always said I was finished with babies and pets.  Well, Bob changed that!  He wanted a dog very badly, and I finally agreed on the stipulation that it would be a rescue dog.  (I have friends and family involved with rescue pets and rescue organizations.)   He agreed and I started to search.  We ended up with 2-3 year old Tiffany, a small terrier mix.  She is sweet, quiet, house broken, and affectionate.  However, she obviously has been abused.  She is trusting of us, but has some problems.  (Anxiety around strangers or leaving the house.)  As a result, I have been consulting with my rescue savvy friends and Tif's foster mom, as well as reading a lot of books on dog psychology and how to help her leave her abuse behind.  We have been a family for 7 weeks now.

We had a problem this morning when she had her first accident in the house.  She had a few accidents early on due to separation anxiety, but solved that by putting her in her crate when we leave.  This time, she could not wait for me to get my robe on before "going".  Took her outside anyhow, and did not scold her.  She seems to know that she did something bad, but I have not made an issue of it.  Aside from that, she is a great cuddler.  She gets assertive when we are on the sofa or bed by wriggling in between us.  She thinks her spot is always in the middle.  Her spot is definitely in our hearts.

Lots of Changes

Time has gone by, and my knitting has included socks for friends, but little else.  I have traveled a lot, and made a few new friends.  I have been to New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  Whew!  I have laid my beloved's ashes in Monterey Bay, and visited lots of family and friends.

I went to a wedding in Colorado, but our hotel was in Cheyenne.  The wedding was just over the border in Colorado.  It was a western ranch themed wedding, and guess where it was held?  On a ranch in northern Colorado, of course!


So what is new?  Bob is new.  Relationships are different at our age.  Less of the flirting and "weaving and dodging" that goes with feeling someone out.  More of the relaxed companionship and conversation.  No games.  We will see ...

Meanwhile, there have been socks and socks, and I am reading new patterns and going through my stash as I get ready to dig into something that is not socks. 

Home again

I was on the road for 18 days, getting home late on May 29th!  I drove 4,989 miles.  I was tired ... 

In May, I stopped in two places in New Mexico, plus Phoenix, San Diego, Arroyo Grande, Carlsbad, St. George, Grand Junction, Windsor, Fort Collins, Omaha, Kansas City, and Joplin.

As I came home from Kansas City/Joplin, I could see the storm to the west of me, and it finally caught me on the north edge of DFW Airport.  Talk about a deluge and slow traffic -- rush hour, too, and a construction zone.  All we needed was a pileup, but fortunately, everyone was driving very slowly and carefully.  It took me an hour and a half to get from DFW Airport to my place, a drive that normally would have been about 30 minutes. 

Good news is that my order of Grenadine sock yarn from MadTosh had arrived, so I picked it up.  A good friend will get the benefit of these socks.  Pattern:  Catherine.  It was hard to let these go!  But friends be friends . . .

Where am I?

It is very wet.

Rolling west

Continuation of broken seed stitch socks . . .

Where am I?

What drives your knitting?

I think it is color and pattern that drives my knitting.  I love color, and that makes me buy more yarn than I can possibly knit up (anything familiar there?).  But texture and pattern follow closely.  I find plain vanilla knitting a little hard to bear.  Bo-oring!

On the needles right now are socks that take care of both of those motivators.  I am using a soft baby boy blue yarn, Knit Picks Stroll in Wonderland Heather, and a lime green remainder from another project.  The blend is luscious.  What do you think?  The pattern is Broken Seed Stitch by handepande.   

By the way, Granddaughter #1 is having two boys in October, and Granddaughter #2 is having a boy and a girl in October.  Two sets of twins in the same month! 

Meme's Bragging Rights

Hudson ... yes, the hair has reddish highlights, and his eyes are blue.  Three months and about three weeks.  He was the recipient of the Nebraska sweater that I knit last fall, which is now outgrown by a long shot.  He is such a big boy!

AND, I have one more baby boy from last winter, but unfortunately I have not gotten to meet Jack yet.  Sigh ...