Ramble On

Ramble On - Led Zeppelin - YouTube from Robert Tischner on Vimeo.

And so I shall ramble, mentally if not physically…

First, current events. It is one thing to be snowed in. It is another to be bullied by high winds and wind chills creeping below zero. And, quite another to be sick on top of it all. How can you enjoy the enforced hibernation? You can’t. Reading and knitting become wearisome. And when that happens, the world seems bleak indeed. Mum has been sick for two weeks and was finally diagnosed with pneumonia on top of her flu. I’ve only been seriously beginning to suffer with sinus congestion in the last two days. Mum has survived on graham crackers and Nutella for the past week, and things looked pretty scary when we were seeing the bottom of the jar, but family came to the rescue. (I highly recommend the pairing. Far better than peanut butter and crackers. The cocoa in the Nutella lets you think you really getting away with something naughty. If I remember correctly, Nutella has less fat and less sodium than most peanut butter. Peanut butter has it beat on protein and less carbs, so I still say a PB and honey sandwich as a post-workout recovery snack can’t be beat.)

Insomnia hit me last night, probably because I made the mistake of taking a dose of liquid NyQuil Cold & Flu. I totally forgot that it contains 10% alcohol. I haven’t had any alcohol in the past two years and four months. I took advantage of being awake in the quiet house (I’ve begun to call it the “sick house”) to work on my To Be Read (TBR) list. I use Goodreads to track my reading and to search for new books, but I do not own a smart phone (I lovingly refer to mine as a “dumb phone”). This complicates matters when browsing in bookstores or the library. My TBR on Goodreads is 430 titles long, and that’s after I made some edits and doesn’t include the possibility of reading more than the first in any of the series that are included. I remember some of the books, but not authors. I created a little black notebook with tabs to allow me to roughly alphabetize the TBR for ease of use. I then searched online library catalogs for local library systems and placed color-coded dots by the titles: blue for those in my county’s system, red for those in a neighboring county’s collection. Yes. That’s how I roll. Once a librarian, always a librarian. (I really love my new notebook!)

If you are a reader who also loves creating book lists, I highly recommend BookRiot. Sign up for their email newsletter, like them on Facebook, and get lots of great reviews, podcasts, videos, and access to related discussions. Another great resource I’ve found for geekdom, from comic books to novels, gaming to new technology, movie reviews to sophisticated social criticism, is The Mary Sue. Its subtitle is “The Nexus of Pop Culture and the Uncharted Universe,” but it also has a distinct slant towards digging into racial and sexual / gender issues. The discussions on the site are lively, witty, and pretty troll-free, which is very refreshing.

I’m currently reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch and I’m about half way through Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I just finished Good Prose by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd. That was such a good book for writing nonfiction that I plan on purchasing my own paper copy. I read an electronic copy through the library.

My reading goal this year is not to out-read last year’s quantity, but to read more slowly and thoughtfully. I plan on rereading some books, taking notes on them, in them, maybe even begin a reading journal. I’m definitely in the mood to read more nonfiction. Part of this approach is for the purpose of analyzing how nonfiction writers have structured their works, how they’ve researched topics, how they went about making facts readable and interesting to a lay audience. I hope to begin writing essays and feature pieces to publish here. Some of my favorite bloggers do this: Kate Davies, who has a background in academia but now is a knitwear designer and studies textile history; Felicity Ford, an artist and author who thinks well beyond the box; and Annie Cholewa, a writer, knitter, dyer, and photographer. These women creators use their blogs as a platform for sharing essays and “features” on specific things or individuals that interest and inspire them.

Basically, I intend to add substantial content and writing to my blog. I would love to interview and feature Julie Wilson of Jehovah Raah Farm. Wilson is the dear soul who taught mum and I to spin our first yarn from Shetland wool grown on her own farm. There is also a place nearby called Echoview Farm and Fiber Mill that I’d love to explore.

I’m not finished with my thoughts, but if I don’t publish this now, it will languish on my desktop and gather cyber dust. Then it will be outdated and I’ll delete it in frustration. So now I hit publish!

Wool Gatherings - Mid-January

I feel confident that I have chosen realistic and positive goals for the new year. It took me half a month to confirm that, but there's no rush. Eleven and a half more stretch before me.

Here they are, in no particular order:

• Self-care = self-love, and that means finding love in the body I'm in now, not putting it off for some runway-ready bod that won't happen. Really, I'd just love to be able to run again, regardless of my weight. What will it take to be a runner again? I need to build up muscle in my ankles, legs, and pump up my cardiovascular. I'm already surprised how quickly I can get back into my favorite breathing rhythm when I speed-walk a mile on the treadmill. Listening to Led Zeppelin or P!nk always helps. Getting back into yoga will also help reach that goal. 
• I want to learn to crochet this year. No grannie-squares, thank you. I'd prefer to learn on a practice swatch and then maybe dive into a super easy cowl, like Daina Mickus's Quick Classy Cowl or  Elizabeth Trantham's Effortless Cowl. 
• I want to learn to spin fiber, particularly on a wheel, but maybe a drop spindle, too. The spindles look like they'd be more difficult. 
• I have a knitting challenge that I've committed myself to completing with the Smoky Mountain Knitting Guild. I am really excited about this. One of our Board members came up with this fantastic idea: the creation of a 2015 Popular Designer Club, consisting of 8 selected knitwear designers, and a Challenge that calls for participants to complete a minimum of 4 patterns by 4 different designers by November 31st. There's a drawing for one of three prizes, but I'm not even interested in that! The whole concept just lit my fancy like wild fire. The designers are Martina Behm, Ysolda Teague, Stephen West, Jared Flood, Veera Välimäki, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Cookie A, and Tin Can Knits. Of course I'm going to knit 4 patterns from 4 separate designers, but I personally hope to make at least one from each before the year is out. In the process of pulling out particular types of patterns by these designers to showcase for the guild, I've come to appreciate each designer's particular styles and the flavor of their work. I never would have been able to do that if not given a reason to pay closer attention to their collections on a one-on-one basis. For example, Stephen West is known for combining unexpected colors and challenging techniques. Once I began looking more closely at his patterns, and also at how other knitters took his designs and personalized them with their own color schemes, I gained a new appreciation for his flexibility. I couldn't have done any of this without the wonders of ravelry.com and the ability to see the whole body of a designer's work in one spot. I love Ravelry. 
• I want to attend more of the KnitWitz knitting groups that meet each Tuesday and Thursday at the public library.
• Last year's goal with Goodreads was to read as much as possible. This year I hope to read for quality, but also look closer at what exactly I personally like in a book. 

Six good, solid goals.

Guess what? I can already provide an update. Hot damn.

• Goal to learn how to spin: Last Monday I took a class taught by Julie Wilson of Jehovah Raah Farm on beginning spinning and I spun my first two bobbins of Shetland wool, taken from sheep that Julie herself raised, and plied them together. Here's the proof:

The skein on the left is mine. It is about 30 yards of hot mess, but it is beautiful to me. I think I'm going to use it in a simple, chunky cowl. Julie gives her students those cute tokens / medals as "graduation" presents once they've completed their first skein. I'm now a real spinner! 

(Note to self: New goal for the year is to lay hands on my own Lendrum spinning wheel.)

• Goal to attend KnitWitz: I've been to two knitting gatherings already. One was to kick off the beginning of a KAL (knit-along) for Laura Aylor's Exit 0 shawl. Here are the three colors I've chosen for the pattern, in Loops & Threads Woolike (85% acrylic / 15% nylon, but heavenly soft and fine):

Charcoal, Mauve, and Cool Gray

• Goal to read more mindfully: At the beginning of January I read Zadie Smith's Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays and loved it. She is an excellent writer and I found that I had a lot in common with her (not the writing part particularly, though I wish). She's a super Katharine Hepburn fan, too! My mother introduced me to Hepburn's films when I was young and we love to watch them together, especially if Cary Grant or Spencer Tracy shows up. For me, when I hear "Hepburn," I always see Katharine, never Audrey. Smith's essays on writing and the novel were particularly astute. (Yes, I used a fancy word, but it is perfect here.) I love how she described how different novelists approach what she calls the architecture of a story, how the process from the get-go can shape the end product. Her essay on George Eliot had me scrounging around for my unread copy of Middlemarch. She offered me a glimpse back to my days of college literature analysis, which I loved. I'm still a total literature nerd. Love it!

I'm currently reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and plan on re-reading it for notes on nonfiction writing structure and narrative. I became particularly interested in Hillenbrand after reading about her research techniques in "The Unbreakable Laura Hillenbrand," an article in The New York Times Magazine. Read it! 

• The Knitting Challenge: I've begun the first pattern towards this goal. I dyed yarn specifically for the pattern, which is the Low Tide Cardigan by Tin Can Knits. The yarn is Miss Babs Tarte base (75% Merino / 15% nylon / 10% Tencel), which I immersion dyed using ProChem WashFast dyes. 

It will be for Alex, who has decided she loves blue. 

There's one more goal. But I'm approaching it like it is an unbroken horse. That goal is to blog weekly, at least. For now, I think I've made a pretty significant start to the year, eh?

Year End Review

I'm not sure I'm ready for 2015. I know I'm not ready for Christmas, but it is already Christmas Eve regardless of me. I am almost finished with one sweater for one of my brothers. This was supposed to have been the year of the sweaters for me. Well, it wasn't quite. Now there's a designer knitting club challenge with my knitting guild that I'm totally stoked about for 2015, plus two KALs that I want to participate in. And I intend to complete the two men's sweaters that are for Dad and my other brother. At least one of those might be part of the designer challenge, but the one for my dad was set to be a simple Henley design. People, I've actually created a spreadsheet to help handle all this knitting in the coming year. It includes the type of yarn, the gauge, and yardage needed. Now, I just need heaps of sweater quantities of the actual yarn.

In more positive news, I found (via a tip from CarolinaSpinner's wonderful Twisted Stitcher Podcast) a bunch of ChiaoGoo fixed circular needles at Tuesday Morning in Asheville. They were all marked at least half price and Mom gifted me with as many as I could reasonably predict myself ever needing. It was such a giant pile of knitting needles that I won't even picture it here. Just ridiculously huge. And I'm already using them. Merry Christmas to me! Thank you, Mom! We also picked up several skeins of Llama Lace by Queensland Collection (100% llama) that were on the shelves there, too. Very nice surprise!

I have recently discovered Instagram. Yes, in fact, I have been living under a rock. Here's my new Instagram account: http://instagram.com/kbryson77/. I didn't begin an account to share my own photos as much as I wanted to access the accounts of many of the blogging and podcasting knitters that I follow. Some are not easily accessible without an Instagram log in.

I've really been getting into the podcasting world more. It is nice to listen to other crafters while I knit. I began with Gynx's The Dyer's Notebook video podcast earlier this year. Now I listen to / watch the DancingGeek, Twisted Stitcher, and FO&Dye. I just watched / listened to the Must Stash Podcast and the 2 Knit Lit Chicks for the first time yesterday. 

On the other hand, I've pulled back from Facebook a bit. FB can lead to some anxiety for me. It has become one of those things, kind of like Christmas cards, that is so often too easy to do with no real sincerity or careful thought. I'm trying to be more careful in many aspects of my life, including what I decide will be a part of my daily influences. I try to control too many things that are impossibly beyond my control, while neglecting the small things that I actually can do something about. I don't always remember that even that must take place in small steps. And I need to acknowledgement my own small steps. It's not all about big benchmarks. It's going to be OK. Right? Right.

Showcase - November 2014

The online crafting community is often a magical place. Sure, there are sometimes heated debates, but, for the most part, it is a generous and uplifting group of folks among whom mingling is a pleasure. After all, this is DIY, not GOP vs. DNC. Independent spirits and thinking outside the box are almost de rigueur. May your creativity sprout wings, roots, or auras!

That being said, there are people and places that act as creative nodes: designers that not only create patterns to follow, but offer new ways of looking at craft; podcasters and bloggers that unite individuals to help maintain the community; small business owners that take huge personal risks to bring their creations to market; and, simply put, some geniuses that humble us all and then raise us up by sharing their discoveries like sunshine.

So far, I've mentioned some of these folks in passing, as links and asides in larger posts. I'd like to dedicate this full post to featuring more individuals and resources that I have found useful or magical or both. Hopefully, even as a die-hard knitter or other yarn crafter (crocheter, spinner, dyer) you may find something here that is new and exciting to you.

I imagine this will be the first of many similar showcases. Although I've been knitting for about ten years now, and finding related online resources for most of that time, I am still new to many things. Such as podcasts. I've only begun delving into crafting podcasts this year. So much to discover!

(Before I begin, I wish to plug Ravelry.com. If you knit, crochet, loom knit, or machine knit, get yourself over to Ravelry and create a free account for yourself. Once you have a log in, you see so much more information via Ravelry (or "Rav") links. There is a whole, huge, gigantic crafting community that uses Ravelry as their communication hub via groups, forums, patterns, personal messaging, and more. Just do it. You'll be so glad you did. Free membership and so many free patterns, plus a secure way to purchase many more patterns. Plus you'll discover more designers and patterns than any one blogger could ever mention. FYI: As I write this there are 3797 crafters on the Ravelry web site, out of 4.7 million registered users from all over the globe. Join us. We have needles and hooks. We will take over the world! In a nice way.)

• I think I'll begin with Anna Zilboorg. You won't find an abundance of online information about Ms. Zilboorg because she mostly knits and designs and meditates off the grid. Her Ravelry info is here: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/anna-zilboorg. I had the honor to speak with Zilboorg and hear her speak at the Smoky Mountain Knitting Guild a couple of months ago. She is the author of several pattern books, especially for mitts and socks, but a new sweater book should be announced soon. The book that is important to me, though, is a small, black paperback called Knitting for Anarchists. If your first reaction to the "A" word is to register the book with your nearest book-burning cult, please pretend you never saw this. In reality, knitting anarchy, as Zilboorg explains it, is teaching oneself the principles of how knitting works from the ground up (or, rather, from the loop up) for the purpose of freeing the knitter to think critically and independently about their own creations. This books is not a pattern book, although it does include pattern information. It is also not a how-to book for neophytes. Think about Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting without Tears. Zilboorg's little black book falls into that category of knitting book. Chapter one of Zimmermann's Knitting without Tears is entitled "The Opinionated Knitter". If you can handle that, you can probably handle Knitting for Anarchists. 
• Zilboorg is a strong and active woman in her early 80s. If you have a chance to hear her speak, take it. If you don't get that chance, you're still in luck. The famous Knitmore Girls recently released a 2011 interview via podcast: The Knitmore Girls Podcast: Director's Cut -- Anna Zilboorg

• Ashley Eskew is a fellow western North Carolinian with big plans. She recently began an online group funding kickstarter for her new fiber business, Twist Fiber Studio. She also has begun the new Twisted Stitcher Podcast to follow her entrepreneur and crafting endeavors. I'm already a fan.

• I am in love. I came across Kate Davies, a designer at home in the Scottish Highlands, well after the rest of the knitting world's lust for her "Owls" design began to cool. How hot was that design? Almost 7700 Ravelry knitters made it or began it and I know that many more also made it without updating their Ravelry project boards. Here is her Ravelry designer page. She has a brand new book called Yokes: Eleven Signature Designs, with Stories of the Sweater that Changed the Shape of Modern Knitting. It is so fresh that books probably haven't even begun to ship. On her wonderful blog, she traced its progress, each step of research, each new wonderful introduction to a like-minded knitter and preserver of the northern European yoke tradition, each meticulously researched tangent...all the while, pulling from musical and visual inspiration, reaching into her bag of carefully collected history, to create new sweater designs. Then, keeping in mind that her readers had faithfully followed her journey online, she actually shared each design on the blog prior to publication. Not just teaser pictures, but gorgeous photographs taken of all angles, mostly of herself walking fields and beaches with flowing skirts and the new, warm woolen creations. You can see all of the patterns included in the book here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/yokes or begin with the first pattern unveiled on her blog and read her discussions of how they developed beginning here: http://katedaviesdesigns.com/2014/10/29/epistrophy/. From there, travel forward to see each design revealed. I also highly recommend reading her earlier posts. She is both a talented designer and writer. 
  

• Of course you may be familiar with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot. She recently featured a genius yarn--pure genius! When I purchased my Polydactyl set from Miss Babs I was determined to find some way to put them together in a shawl. I ended up creating a very basic triangle with narrow top angles so that it would be a bit longer than an equilateral triangle would normally be. My aim was to attempt to create even stripes. No way. I would have had to know exactly how much my longest stripe would need in yardage to be a certain width...well, math began to boggle my mind, so I just knit and changed colors as I pleased. Lo and behold, somebody already tackled the problem and created self-striping shawl yarn. Yo, what!? I had no more than bound off when I read the Yarn Harlot post: Are These Weeds? The folks at Caterpillargreen Yarns are GENIUSES. In case you're not familiar with self-striping yarn, let me tell you a little about it. To create stripes that match one another from one sock to another and from one color change to another, a dyer must unwind the yarn they are dying into sections for each color, but in a way that gives them control to rewind without creating knots. All sorts of mathematics may be used to create the exact combination of color stripes desired. But there is a pretty standard measurement for a sock. The vast majority of ankles and cuffs are around about the same circumference, making the work a bit easier. On the other hand, when creating self-striping shawl yarn, you must take into consideration that each stripe will require differing yardage just to appear the same width. And that's just assuming your knitter is only going to use the yarn on a triangular pattern. I am impressed. To say the least. 

• Tin Can Knits is the collaborative design team of Alexa Ludeman and Emily Wessel. They offer patterns for free and for purchase. They even encourage others to use their designs for teaching knitting! Besides their own teaching engagements, they also provide online tutorials, usually tucked into their blog posts, like this one on steeking. They even have what they call "The Simple Collection: Learn to Knit with Alexa and Emily,"which is completely free and contains patterns for 1 hat, 1 baby blanket, 1 unisex sweater (adult and child sizes), 1 unisex cardigan (adult and child sizes), mitts, socks, 1 cowl, and 1 scarf. They are all designed to teach the beginning knitter all of the techniques needed to complete each project with linked tutorials (all on that link I provided above). Tin Can Knits rocks!! 

• In other designer / tutorial news, you may be aware of Ysolda Teague's great designs...but did you know that her Scotland-based studio posts regular technique tutorials and tips? Check it out: Ysolda's Technique Thursdays. I also highly recommend reading her blog. That's how I found out about the next gem.

• Knitsonik: Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook: A Knitting Book that Shows You How to Turn Everyday Inspirations into Gorgeous Stranded Colourwork by Felicity Ford. This is a truly beautiful book. I want it. If you like stranded colorwork, especially if you want to design some of your own or select your own palette of colors for an existing design, this treasure is for you.
• Reviews: Kate Davies (she edited it) and Ysolda Teague
• A guest blog post by Ford for Ysolda, on the topic of choosing colors for colorwork, HERE
• Ford's blog: The Domestic Soundscape
• Knitsonik, which is a site dedicated to the fuller scope of her art work, exploring sound and wool, or as she puts it, "the sonic world of wool".
• Buy the book directly from Ford, here: http://www.knitsonik.com/knitsonik-stranded-colourwork-sourcebook/

Inspiration from the mall?

This lovely number can be purchased from Banana Republic, but doesn't it just scream to be made? You can purchase it online here. It is officially named the "Popcorn Stitch Turtleneck Pullover", but the giant chevron screams to me louder than the independent stitch within it. I especially love the traveling ribs over the hip bone area! 

Yarnish News

I realize I totally skipped posting my SAFF haul. Mom and I went with two other wonderful ladies from the Smoky Mountain Knitting Guild and spent a wonderful Friday morning jostling from one woolly vendor to another. I had one main goal. Get one of these guys:

That's one handsome wee Peruvian alpaca. Unfortunately, I paid cash for him and can't remember the name of the vendor. 

These skeins are 100% alpaca from Morning Moon Alpacas. The brown pile are small skeins of yarn made from hair on the alpaca's neck and legs, which is coarser than what you normally find in a skein of alpaca. Nevertheless, they are pretty soft. They were only $2 a piece, so we couldn't help but scoop up some. The larger, white skein is 100% baby alpaca. Super soft. 

I also discovered Miss Babs. Apparently Miss Babs is a non-secret in a loop from which I'd been excluded. I've been living under a rock. She is located not far away; her dying studio is in Mountain City, TN, on the NC/TN state line (north of here). Her mystique comes from her wonderful sense of color and a bit of exclusivity that comes from the fact that she does not work wholesale with LYSs. You can only get her dyed yarn online or at shows. She puts on a grand vendor display indeed. I was totally bowled over by the sheer quantity of color and variety of bases!  And the line to check out was huge! She also designs special dye lots for events in limited quantities. The SAFF colorway was sold out in hours before we even got to the Miss Babs booth. I still don't know what it looked like. 

I have a small issue with overstimulation, though. I simply couldn't pick out a single skein. So many colors...so many bases! But I had to get something from my new-found fav dyer. 

So I did this:

This is Polydactyl yarn set in "Funny Papers". These are sets of 7 mini-skeins (133 yards) in 7 different colorways, named after one of the distinct colorways, on her Yummy 2-Ply Toes. In addition to "Funny Papers" (the multi-color), it contained "Coral", "Coos Bay", "Cloak", "Forever", "Oyster", and one other that I can't remember because Mom threw away the wrapper. I was so in love with the colors that I was compelled to cast on something. I finally decided on a very simple shawl that is longer than a basic triangle, one with ends that are more acute. I'm just finishing up a stretchy bind off today.

I also picked up this giant cone of yarn from Miss Bab's:

That is approximately 3800 yards of undyed ("Ecru") Tarte yarn base (fingering weight in 75% superwash merino / 15% nylon / 10% tencel). It was a deal at only $38.00. Mom and I've been playing with the acid dyes again! This is the cone from which I've been niddy noddying some big skeins. 

I've also been working on a new shawl, Briargate by Jen Lucas, in Berroco Boboli Lace (on the needles in the picture below) and Berroco Folio. 

I'll leave you with some nice pictures showcasing our fickle weather. November has been a trip.

 

Just before the winter snow tease.

The Japanese maple through the craft room windows after the winter snow tease.
Just don't mind that un-curtained window...it's a WIP.

"update" sounds like such a positive word...

I have been emotionally or physically beat, in some form or another, since SAFF. So I haven't blogged. Now I shall whine.

A neighbor who has three adult cows (one being a bull and another being in heat) and a calf needed help moving said cows to a lower field for their eventual transportation to an auction. She was recently widowed and can't take care of them alone. My brother arranged a trade in which we did this in return for fire wood from her 90+ acres for the winter. Also, he would make sure that her wood shed was filled with split wood before we took any for ourselves.

I participated (on foot) in herding said cattle across said 90+ (mountainous) acres. It was beautiful. It was strenuous.

Only to discover that since no one had been actively keeping up the farm...there were gaps in the fence around the lower field.

My experience with cattle farms goes no further than black and white Westerns.

I will discuss that episode no more.

I slipped and fell in the kitchen. It took two days before my muscles and joints began to ache.

Mom made a nifty niddy noddy from PVC pipe. I can now take yarn from cones and make them into skeins. Skeins are easier to dye. The niddy noddy is 18", so it gives me a loop of yarn that is two yards around total.

I had no idea that using a niddy noddy would take muscle or make them ache.

I also had no idea that soaking and dyeing and squeezing approximately 3000 yards of wet yarn would wear me out.

I am sadly out of shape, in case you hadn't already gathered as much.

Halloween brought a cheap thrill for winter. A total tease of snow. Since then, our mornings have been very cold, but days are in the 70s and higher in direct sun light.

Mom was sick and puked one day. Her sinuses were giving her problems.

My niece, who is only 3, was so sick that she spent almost 24 hours puking. Ugh. In between boughts of vomitting, her nose ran.

I am now sick. I am not a pukey kind of person. I simply generate enough yellow and green mucus to fill a small lake. And I breathe out of my mouth because my nose is clogged. Pleasant.

The dogs were spayed and neutered yesterday. Did you know that a 125 pound dog can slither out of the hands of 2 grown men, 2 grown women, even while one of those women (me) weighs 200 pounds and is actually sitting on the dog's back? We gave up attempting to put Samson in a crate. Instead of letting the local humane society take them to the clinic, we drove them ourselves.

Did you know that dogs can express anal glands when they are extremely afraid and stressed? It smells like poop. It is strong. Like a lot of poop. Samson "expressed" himself immediately upon realizing he was expected to go into someone else's kennel. He's not used to traveling or being around so many strangers. Um. We'll work on that.

I had to change clothes, wash hands three times, and open the Suburban windows for hours because of anal expression. The source may have been back there, but it sure smelled like it was oozing from every part of his skin.

I held onto Samson's leash and was dragged at least the length of my body once. Over gravel. Then we knocked over a volunteer. Oops.

In one more day, I expect to feel sore from that trip at the end of a leash.

I am so proud of Samson. He was scared, but was not aggressive at all. He even wagged his tail when he met new people. He just refused to follow instructions.

Samson weighed 125. Lucy weighed 109.

They are currently each sleeping on a sofa in the living room.

But, what makes me saddest is that my hands have been hurting when I knit. Especially my right index finger. Maybe I should try learning Continental?