Petfinder found a pet for me

This is Georgia, she's a 2 yr old Maltese, presently residing in a pet rescue in a town close to where I live. I found her on Pet Finders and submitted an adoption application for her.
There's also a dog named Fancy that I like but I pretty much wanted a Maltese. I'm going to go meet her on Monday. This little dog will require grooming but I suspect I am going to keep her hair cut into a "Puppy Cut" which will be easier to maintain.

I can't wait to meet her, she's sooooo cute. My grandaughters and I have already renamed her as GEE GEE. Unless there is something horrible about her that I can't tell from the picture or write-up she'll be going home with me. I'm going to stop at Pet Smart and get a car seat so she can ride with me when I travel around. I'm excited!!

I need to add that the dog I loved so much and had to give away was a Louisiana Catahoula. These dogs are bred to hunt wild boar in Louisiana. That's fine for where I live now, we also have wild boar in our woods surrounding my house and we also have bear and deer. I found out my beloved Susie was keeping the deer out of my yard because now that she's gone the deer have eaten all my azaleas. I don't mind, DNR says they are starving in our mountains because of the long drought we've had so if my azaleas help them that's ok with me.

The thing is, Susie could stay with me because I'm trying to sell my house. She barks at anyone who drives up my driveway...not something you want when you're selling your house. She also is way too big to move to an apartment in the city. That's the biggest drawback to Susie, I'm moving to a city apartment. Susie would be miserable in such a setting. Her new home has acres and acres to run in. She doesn't have to be tied up. She loves her new owner and I GAVE him my golf cart which Susie absolutely, dearly loves. She sits in the seat next to her new master and rides all over the place, barking at his other dog so that he won't get in. Its HER golf cart she figures. He said she comes from wherever she is, even if she's half way across his pasture..when she hears that golf cart beeping.

So, hopefully you'll understand that even though I loved Susie so much and hated to give her away, its best for her and the new dog is supposedly the perfect pet for apartment dwellers.

Our second attempt at Needle Felting

Lindsey and I decided to try our hand at needle felting again today. This time, rather than working together we each worked on a dog. Lindsey's family has 2 golden retrievers so she took a look at her dog and made one, laying down just like hers does. I told her she should felt some hair from her dog but she said no, this one is a puppy and not real hairy yet. My little dog is a terrier of some sort. I'm calling him a Terrier Mutt.

Both of us are learning how to do this and we've decided that there's just no "one way" of doing it. She is using a clover tool to make the base and then a regular needle felting needle for the fine tuning. I'm just using the regular needle tool, I have no idea which size, I just took one out of the pack and went for it. I suppose now I should really learn which needles do what and work accordingly.

This could be addictive. I can't wait to get home and take a look at all the fleece I have stored in my loft. I know for a fact that the Beast fleece will make a dog like my Susie that I had to give away back in November before I started traveling around visiting my kids.

My First Attempt at Needlefelting

This is my first attempt at needle felting. I have no idea what kind of dog it might be but I love it. My grandaughter helped me. Between the 2 of us, I made the body pieces and she started building up the fur on his back and sides. I finished up the face.



I have Penny's kit and book but rather than use her nice fleece for my first one I thought I would use some of the fleece I have laying around. As you can probably tell, we only slightly followed her directions, we were having too much fun to read step by step...(sorry Penny).



I'm still not ready to use the "good stuff". I can see how this might become addicting.

Knitting

I joined Knitting Daily http://www.knittingdaily.com/ just about the time they first came up with the idea. Its a little email connected to a web page full of chat about new (HK) patterns and best of all, old patterns that were previously published in Interweave Knits Magazine--oldies but goodies that you can now buy in .pdf format very inexpensively.

They also have lots and lots of free patterns, knit and crochet, that you can download. The emails come at least once a week and have some great tips and tricks you can learn from. Today I got an email talking about increasing and decreasing when HKing...and I went to the web site just to see what was new and to read more about the inc and dec. While there I clicked on Free Patterns (my favorite of course) and found this beauty. I LOVE THIS RUG!!! Hummm, I wonder, if I made it would I let anyone stand on it? Well---I think I might give it a try. I have lots of hand spun and Country Classics dye that I need to pack up for moving or---hey, I think this is the perfect project for it. I could make the rug in the colors shown which would match my new furniture. and I can already see it in front of my new couch!!! Doggone it, I wish I could start it today but you know my latest thing--finish what you started!!! And wasn't it just yesterday when I said I was taking on a new project? Needle Felting little doggies? Well---its going on my ever-growing to-do list. HA! If I live to be 110 I won't finish all these wonderful things I want to do but what fun it is to try.

Felted Foursome Finished

The Mobius twist is in the handle.

Not totally thrilled with this...2 buckets are shorter than the other two. I re-wet them and put drinking glasses in them to stretch them as good as I could. So-another project done although I'm not totally pleased...they sure do seem taller than Cat Bordhi's but then I used handspun rather than the wool she recommended. I did rewet it with the glasses in, hoping that would stretch the short ones a little, we'll see what happens.

Now, its back to the LK 150 and the Feather and Fan shawl that I started before Christmas. Will I ever finish it? Let's say I'm shooting for this week and maybe a little of this weekend thrown in. I know its going to turn out beautiful, it already is.

Foursome's Done (almost)

There it is, 4 buckets and a handle with a twist in it. But I've spent all day trying to figure out how to sew it together. Supposedly I'm going to sew the inner parts together. I've looked at the picture in the book and the picture on the web site and I'm still not exactly sure what to do but I've sewn it 3 times now...all 3 times it didn't seem right. I'll get it. The book has a smaller picture of it but I found a better picture here: http://www.catbordhi.com/downloads/Treasury_2_pv.pdf

I was hoping I'd find directions for sewing it but no such luck although the book is pretty specific, I'm just having a hard time following directions. I probably need some chocolate and wine!


Meanwhile, I've been looking on ebay whenever I rest my needle from the Foursome. I ended up with a needle felting kit to make a Maltese Dog. Soooo cute. I hope mine turns out this cute. I think I'm going to take it to Michigan and let the grandaughters help me make it. When finished I'll knit a Cat Bordhi mobius dog bed for it. This kit was Item # 270218984758 . I've been looking at them now for a few weeks and today I couldn't resist any longer.









OH, did I forget to say I also bought a finished dog? Well, I miss my dogs and while the house is for sale, I hesitate to get another one, even a small one for fear they'll mess up the furniture or floor or, well I'm trying to keep the place clean. (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it). The finished Matese was Item # 230231548973 and if you want one, she does have more dogs. I'm tempted but I'll see how mine turns out first. Here she is, she measures only 3" long x 3" high to the top of her topknot. She's made of White merino wool and 100% Cultivated Silk. Her pink bow sports a Pink Swarovski Rhinestone set in a silver jewel finding.



Hopefully sometime tomorrow I'll have a picture of a felted Foursome to show.

2 UFO's On Saturday

At Christmas time I was trying furiously to finish up presents for local relatives while I was also trying to get ready to leave for Tacoma. One niece got left out in my rush. I promised her I'd get her present done as soon as I got home from Tacoma but here I am, over 2 months after Christmas and I still haven't delivered her present. Maybe it was meant to be, she's moving from a camper to a house in the next couple weeks. They're really excited and working to get the house painted and fixed up before they move in. So--I decided to get that throw finished and make it for the new house. I picked a design that was on sale this week at Embroidery Library. I think its perfect.

Meanwhile, I am still working on the Felted Foursome. I probably could have finished it if I had worked on it while the machine was embroidering but instead I was reading a book...so I took the foursome to the Mill rather than my spinning wheel since bad weather was predicted and I didn't want to get the wheel wet.

I am definitely going to finish it today, I can't wait to felt it. BTW, people at the mill couldn't figure out what it is...they all said, it did look like ...something...maybe a bit obscene??? Good think I took the book so I could show visitors the picture of what it is going to look like (hopefully)