Willie Wallaby (again)

I just can't resist the combination of a Wee Niece who will wear the sweaters I knit and the Wonderful Wallaby pattern. Therefore, I had to make another one.

This sweater is made from an inexpensive cotton found at just about any department store or chain craft store. However, that does not make it useless yarn. Don't get me wrong, I can be a complete yarn snob when the project calls for it. But for a child who will likely be rather hard on a sweater and do things like get dirty and a mom who would prefer not to be spending time worrying about how to care for her kid's clothes you want something hard wearing and easy to clean. Cotton and acrylic fit this profile perfectly.

Pattern: Wonderful Wallaby by Carol A. Anderson
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Ombres & Prints in Patio Pinks
Needle: 4.5mm & 5.0mm
Gauge: 16 stitches and 22 rows = 10 cm

Pets
Since very sadly loosing Soccer earlier this week Ahab is now the only pet left. It's been pretty quiet around here. I'm not sure if he likes being an only dog or not so we're going on lots of walks (when the wind is not insane) and giving him lots of petting. I do intend to get another dog but Ahab does not like puppies so it may need to wait a while. For now, it's just us.

Current Weather
23C and sunny. Windy enough to blow you into Saskatchewan the past couple of days. It's been warm to hot but you'd never know due to the wind. Before that we got one lovely hot summer day; could be the only one we get so made sure to enjoy it.

In Loving Memory

Soccer crossed the Rainbow Bridge this morning. He was bleeding into his stomach; basically bleeding to death internally. He can rest now. He couldn't walk or wag his tail anymore so it was definitely time to rest.

In his youth Soccer wagged his tail constantly, even in his sleep. He considered a 16KM hike a good warm up and always did everything with the utmost enthusiasm. In his old he tried age to keep up the enthusiasm but it became more selected. For years I said I could power my house if I could figure out how to harness his energy. Later he could only have managed to recharged my cell phone.

He hated hoops, hoola-hoops, tires; anything circular. When I tried to teach him to sit in the middle of a hoola-hoop lying on the floor he refused to put a paw inside such a thing. When I taught him to jump through the agility tire, for months he ran around it three times to make sure it wasn't hiding anything sinister before very carefully jumping through. He almost managed to learn to play Flyball. He would run over three jumps until he was bleeding from the nose but refused to run over four jumps. He could be incredibly stubborn.

He was taken from his mom too young and as a consequence had socialization problems all his life; then was abandoned by at least one, more likely two or even more families before he came to me. I promised him I would never leave him. I kept that promise and was right beside him as he left this world.

A Wee Sweater

A wee sweater for my Wee Niece in Scotland. Mostly this was improvised but I did go to knittingfool.com for some of the numbers; it's mostly a gansey but I modified the yoke a bit so it can button up. The buttons are hard to see in the picture because they're clear, I couldn't find anything that went with this colour so clear seemed like a good choice.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: King Cole Cotton Top DK in Rose
Needle: 4.0mm & 4.5mm
Gauge: 20 stitches and 29 rows = 10 cm

And then I cast on for another Wallaby - Willie Wallaby - for her because I just can't resist. I have to take advantage of not being extremely uncool while I can. It won't last forever.

Current Weather
20C and mostly cloudy. Excellent weather for the Calgary Stampede this year, hot but not too hot and no vicious thunderstorms hit the city. Tragedy at the chuck wagon racing though with 6 horses dying, I feel for the drivers; those horses are like family to them.