A Brace o' Dragons

Two more Tarragons finished and ready to go to their new home. My boss is having a baby, actually his wife is doing most of the work on that, so I'm sending him a pink dragon for his daughter and a blue one for the new baby, a boy according to the ultrasound. Neither have actual eyes, with a newborn I didn't want to sew on buttons which could become a choking hazard so I just sewed a couple of lines in for the eyes. Not particularly good embroidery but it will serve the purpose I hope.

Pattern information for the pink dragon can be found here.

For the blue dragon:

Pattern: Tarragon the Gentle Dragon
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver Solids in Royal and Light Blue
Needle: 4.5mm and 2.75mm
Gauge: not critical but you want a fairly tight fabric for stuffing.

This means I can finally get the dragons and baby blanket into the internal company mail and sent off. My boss is actually located on the other side of the country. In Canada that's a long ways away.

In other news this little bird flew into the front window the other day. Poor thing must have had a terrible headache but managed to fly away after about 30 minutes.

Hiking

Hiked Ptarmigan Cirque with some good friends on Sunday. The hike wasn't too bad, although quite steep at the start/end but the trail was terribly muddy and slick. And my boots are pretty worn without a lot of grip left, I should have put more effort into finding my spikes, so I really had to feel my way down. Ahab was an awful mess coming home and we'd taken their car out, fortunately there was a blanket for him to sit on so he wasn't shedding mud all over the seat. They're also dog people, although between dogs at the moment.

We even met someone who'd had a dog much like Ahab, including missing the back right paw, 20 years ago. She had a 20 year old trip down memory lane; even when he's not trying he helps people. It's not hard to wonder why he was such a good therapy dog.

It's a tough life.

Current Weather
8C and mostly cloudy. Second day of Fall feels an awful lot like the last three weeks of summer.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Cotton Vest II

Finally, after two spectacular vest failures in a row I managed to make one that will fit and did not get dyed an unfortunate colour. And let's just hope it stays that way. I suspect I will wear this a lot since I love vests, they provide just the right amount of warmth indoors during Winter. The yarn is basically a cheap-o kitchen cotton but I made a sweater out of it years ago that has held up well so I have hope this too will last for several years. I'm thinking of making one in blue.

Sort of followed EZs percentage sweater to make this but modified the yoke to allow for buttons and put in some waist shaping. And it's a vest. I cropped my head off the picture because I couldn't manage to take one that didn't end up with me looking like I was having a health crisis.

Pattern: EZs Percentage Sweater (sort of)
Yarn: Handicrafter Cotton Solids in Sonoma Print
Needle: 4.5mm and 5.0mm
Gauge: 16 stitches and 26 rows = 10 cm

Current Weather
13C and mostly cloudy. Feels like Fall is knocking on the door.

Wordless Wednesday

Cotton Vest Disaster and a Dragon

I made myself a cotton vest, just using some Bernat Cotton, nothing fancy no real pattern.

Then I put it in the wash.

I didn't realize the new sheets were going to shed this much purple/red dye.

It seriously looks like someone bled all over it. A lot. I've washed it a couple times to try to get the dye out but no luck so far. I can't even donate it since it looks like it was part of a murder spree.

The dragon came out much better. Another Tarragon, love this pattern so any excuse to make another one, in this case my boss is having a baby so I made a dragon for his daughter. Will also make one for the new baby, said to be a boy, in blue.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Iris and Watermelon
Pattern:  Tarragon the Gentle Dragon
Needle: 2.75mm & 4.0mm
Gauge: not critical but you want a firm fabric for stuffing

Pets
Everyone had their annual physical yesterday.

Mouse (17 years old) kept trying to run away from home when we got back even though I told her we were not likely to go back to the vet for a while. Her blood pressure is high so she's going onto some blood pressure meds, hopefully she likes the taste of pill-pockets as she will need to take these for the rest of her life along with some pain killers for arthritis. Blood work shows her just starting to have kidney problems so she's moving to a kidney support diet. Other than that she is wonderfully healthy. Not bad for the feline equivalent of 84 years old.

Soccer (13 years old) is in the poorest health of us all. His kidneys are not doing well at all, but he has gained a couple of kilos over the past few months which is good news as he was terribly underweight earlier this year, to the point where I thought I was going to loose him; the improvement is a huge relief. Waiting for the blood work to see if his kidney values have improved. And will be increasing his daily dose of pain meds for arthritis, he walks with a zombie shuffle in the back end because his hips are failing badly. Getting old is not for the weak. The vet also said that he is one of her favorite dogs ever which is really nice to hear because Soccer is the only dog (so far anyway) that I've had that I needed to seek professional help to train, I guess we got it right in the end.

Ahab (12 years old) is now retired from Scent Hurdle, he needs pain killers for his arthritis to get through the day; sports are done. He's done more than enough for the sport of Scent Hurdle as any dog could as the first tri-pawed to compete (I had to get the rules changed so he could compete) he's earned his retirement. He had more teeth removed in July and his mouth has healed up nicely; we're working on tooth brushing. Other than the arthritis he's doing well.

Current Weather
16C and mostly cloudy. Yesterday the smoke cleared off for the most part, today it seems to be back. We've been chocking on smoke from the BC wild-fires for over two weeks now.