The Woolen Rabbit

Lunch For Life............Dec. 30, 2006

Last winter, I was contacted by a woman who was looking for a Cavalier for a child who had had cancer, but who was now in remission.  This woman, Jill, was a friend of Maggie's breeder, which is how she got my name. 

This little girl, Morgan, was hoping to get a dog to do junior handling with and wanted a Cavalier more than any other dog.  At the time, I was going to keep the puppy that I currently had to show myself and did not have any other puppies available that I felt were nice enough for a child to compete in the ring with, so I referred a few breeders to her.

Some of you may remember the little puppy, Bibbity who I was going to keep here.  As she grew, however,I knew her markings would hold her back in the ring, but she had just about the dearest temperament ever, so I went back and forth.  Should she stay or should she become someones much loved pet?  These are very hard decisions for a breeder. 

On one of those days when I was going back and forth on what to do, I got another call from Jill.  She had bad news.  The little girl, Morgan's cancer had come back and this time the prognosis was not very good.  More than anything in the world, Morgan wanted a blenheim cavalier girl.  The family was going to visit a black and tan puppy that was available, but Jill wanted to check one more time with me and to get a reference on the breeder with whom she had spoken with (who btw, is a wonderful breeder as well).  This call clinched it for me.  Bibbity had a mission in her sweet little life and it was to be a much loved companion for Morgan.  Can you believe that they even threw a "shower" for Morgan in preparation for Bibbity, who is now Izzy.

Morgan's Mom has a website which goes through the ups and downs of what their lives have been like since Morgan was diagnosed with cancer.  I had linked to her website asking for some prayers.  Last week I spent the week going all the way back to the beginning of her Mom's blog and was so touched at what this family has endured, only to be faced with what they are now facing.  Today I receved an email from Jill, who is now my friend as well, and these are her words.........

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"One of Morgan's wishes was to be home for Christmas.  At the time, it wasn't looking like she'd get that wish. Days later (the week before Christmas), she suffered a very serious setback. She made it home for Christmas, but not quite as she had hoped.

Morgan is in the final stages of battling her cancer, neuroblastoma, and is under the watchful care of hospice, but is still enjoying her visits from friends and family

Every year, the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation has a special holiday fundraiser.  This fundraiser challenges us to give up the cost of one lunch to help fight this cancer.  They have figured that:

"If just one of us told five friends to give up lunch today, and asked that the next day they asked five of their friends to do the same...and those five friends asked five of their friends to do the same on the next day and so on for the next ten days...Do you know how much money could be raised?........At just five dollars per lunch that would raise $9,765,625.00 in ten days."

I'm hoping that, in this season of giving, you'd consider skipping a lunch to add an ornament onto a Christmas Tree for Morgan

As little as $5 adds a virtual ornament onto a Christmas tree for her.  The hopes are to fill it all the way!!

Every donation (and all of the money) goes to help fund neuroblastoma research and support for this devastating children's cancer.

I have made a donation, and, if you chose to make a donation, each ornament you add to the tree can be doubled.

Their website is:  http://www.lunchforlife.org

To make a donation and have your ornament(s) doubled, use the name of Morgan Betz and then the code#24085.

[This organization is 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and the family endorses it.]

Regardless of whether you can contribute, the family is asking for prayers.

Their request is "Please, if you could, please send up a prayer or two that Morgan is able to make this transition as pain-free and peaceful as possible."

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I too have made a donation to this organization that hugely benefits these children and their families and I am hoping that some of you may want to join me in skipping a few lunches a month too. :-)

Click here to see Morgan's personal tree.  Let's help fill her tree up with our ornaments.......she would love that!

I have added a link to my side bar as well.  I can't think of a better cause to donate my money to.  These children are our future.....let's do what we can to help them.

Ei Yi Yi ...............Dec. 28, 2006

Some of you may think that this post is going to be a knitting lesson if you look at the picture............but trust me, it is not.  What it is, is the beginning of what my day was going to be like....an omen you may say.

Seed stitch.  love it.......hate it.  As I sat down with my coffee this morning to work on the LL vest, after the dogs so graciously let me sleep past the "Crack O' Dawn", I noticed that I had knit where I should have purled and purled where I should have knit on the seed stitch border.....an easy mistake with seed stitch.  Out comes the old reliable red plastic crochet hook that has had quite a work out lately.  Note to self......."Self, wine and seed stitch are not good partners".

So after fixing my seed stitch and enjoying a quiet hour of knitting, I set about the day's business.  Hannah was playing with the dogs in their sun room when I heard the call for MOOOOOM, come quick!! 

Oh crap.... 2 of the dogs were in the midst of a serious fight!  Now mind you, Cavaliers are the mildest mannered dogs that ever were, but they are still dogs.  I only have 4 cavaliers currently, but Kali, my young b/t girl has been challenging one of the older dogs, who is what we call the "alpha" for a few months now.  Usually the dogs will sort it out between themselves without any drama...however, that has not been the case with these girls.  Two days ago, there was a minor fight, but today it was a full fledged fight of the scary variety. :(.  Once 2 girls (yep...the girls are worse than the boys) fight, you can count on more fights of this type and it is unacceptable here.  It breaks my heart that one of them is going to have to leave, but I can't risk one of them being hurt or even worse, one of the kids getting bitten accidentally while they are fighting.

Soooo.......after breaking up the fight, talking to a few breeder friends and resigning myself to the fact that I will have to place the younger dog, I took myself out shopping for a little spell....a stress reliever of sorts you might call it.  It took my mind off of the dogs for a few minutes, and relieved the stress a little  until ...........BANG........  Yep, a driver of the ski tourist variety slammed into the back of my car.  Thankfully other than a good teeth grinding and a few dents, there was no harm, but oh my.........Ei Yi Yi.....what a freakin' day!  Thankfully tomorrow, as Scarlett so aptly put it....is another day :-)

And The Day After........Dec. 26, 2006

An ocean of ink in a single drop,
Trembling at the tip of my brush.
Poised above stark white paper,
A universe waits for existence.
Deng Ming~Dao

What a wonderful weekend was had here by all.  This is the first year in as many as I can remember that we had our shopping and wrapping finished early. The baking and cleaning done in record time before the holiday, and no major appliances breaking down the week before the day, so all in all we had a very relaxing Christmas.

The kids are getting older now and Christmas has become much less chaotic.  We get to sleep a bit later on Christmas morning and the tearing of the presents is no longer quite so frantic.  One of the best parts of Christmas now.......the grandchildren.  I love this picture of my granddaughter, Mckayla and Papa Woolen Rabbit.

Even though presents this year, other than the usual Spin Off and Handwoven Subscriptions, were not of the fiber variety, Christmas weekend was full of time spent with fibery things.

With waiting to see if the single Red Sock was going to fit my son, before starting on the second one. I got reacquainted with the Cable Moss Vest.  What can I say, other than I LOVE this pattern.  The Highland wool is always an enjoyable yarn to knit with and this pattern while pretty easy, is interesting enough to keep my attention :-).

I also managed to squeeze in some spinning time.  The roving was a purchase from last year's trip to Rhinebeck.  I love the suble color changes of the Mossgreens, greys and soft browns.  I should have enough of this yarn when it is all spun up to make another Sara James vest to replace the one that I am wearing out.  Well, not replace...but in addition to.  This vest pattern is one of the most comfortable knits that I have ever made.  If I had one for each day of the week, I would probably just wear them....LOL

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday weekend in your corner of the world :-).

Twas The Night Before Christmas.....Dec. 24, 2006

Merry Christmas to one and all.......May your day be Merry and Bright!

Oops....Dec. 22, 2006

Do you notice anything unusual about this sock?  Probably not because it came out exactly the way that I had hoped it would.

Except........................

It fits ME!

Now Mr Olive Oyl may have slender legs, but he does not have short stubby feet like I do.  Hmmm... the chubbiness of my feet should make up for some of the space, but I'm thinking it's still going to be too short, so.......you guessed it.  RIPPPP...........

There is a reason why I typically don't knit Christmas presents......LOL

So instead of picking the needles right back up and getting started again, what do I do in my true ADD fashion?  I start something new.....  That's right, something completely new.....something I haven't done for a few years........fa la la la la :-)

Ho Ho Ho, Who Will Know?.....Dec. 20, 2006

Eeekkk..............Don't tell anyone they did this to us...ok?.

A Woolen Rabbit Weekend....Dec. 18, 2006

You can see from the picture, what my weekend was about.....  Hannah being of that age where baking is a fun thing, kept me busy all day Saturday making all kinds of cookies.  We made gingerbread men (very funky looking, I may add), sugar cookies, chocolate crackle cookies, peanutbutter kiss cookies and my new favorite Lime Shortbread cookies.  You can find the recipe here.  Cindy has a recipe exchange going on, so go over and add a recipe.  Thanks Cindy for the chocolate crackle recipe....YUM!

I have great admiration for those of you who can crank socks out quickly....fast knitters....which I am not.  This weekend, my other obsession was knitting this sock.  Literally, my backside was pasted to a chair knitting in between baking, and I only got this far, but I do want to try and finish them for Christmas.  Silly I know to plan something so late, but what can I say.....the inspiration came late :-).

I hesitated to show this sock as you can see very clearly the problem I have with plain stockinette sock knitting.  It's my nemesis.......ladders.  The pattern does call for a purl stitch down the back center of the sock, but you can see the ladder (and trust me there's a matching one on the other side) that does not belong there.  Try as hard as I can to pull that stitch between needles tight, I always miss the mark.  Thankfully the recipient of this sock will not care...LOL. 

If anyone is curious, I did rip out my first attempt as I was pretty certain they would be too loose.  Given that I did not have a 2.25 mm needle, I decided to try a 2.0mm and see where that got me. I am thankful again, that the recipient has those Olive OYL legs.  They fit me comfortably and I know that they will fit him as well, but I think that they would be too snug for the average man.  2.25mm needles would be a much better choice and are now at the top of my knitting list.

And now a little website Randomness....

I want to share two websites today with you all.  The first one is my all time favorite Christmas card/song.  I shared it last year with you all and much to my joy, it was uploaded again for this Christmas. Go take a visit............it will surely make you smile :-)  I know I do every time I visit...and I visit alot...LOL.

And now a bit of sadness and a request for some prayers.  Some of you may remember one of my puppies from last year....Bibbity.  I was originally going to keep her, but a little girl needing a friend came into my life and Bibbity (now Izzy) went to be her companion.  This little girl, Morgan, has a form of cancer and needs your prayers, as she is struggling.  You can read about Morgan and her Mom's struggle to help her here.  My heart breaks for this family and the others who are struggling with childhood cancers, especially at this time of year.  Light a candle, say a prayer or send some healing thoughts to these little ones.

Needle Dilemmas

Did I say how pleased I was with this red yarn?  Yep, I think I did, but like a proud parent, I am saying it again. :-).  It's not like I haven't knit with many red yarns before, but somehow when it is yarn that you created yourself, each stitch jumps out and says hello.:-)

My dilemma though has nothing to do with the yarn, but with the needles.  The pattern, Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks from Vintage Socks, calls for 70 stitches on size one needles.  I am using knitpics metal double points which I LOVE, love love....but ..the sock seems a bit loose and my son, God bless him has Olive Oyl legs.  I pulled out my wooden 1's to compare them as the metal needles feel a bit heftier.   I thought that the heftiness was more the weight of the needle, but in comparing them side by side, the metal does seem a bit bigger.  So my dilemma is.....do I pull this out and start again?  Do I just continue, as I haven't read any posts in blogland of these socks coming out too loose?  Hmmmm..... 

Walk With Me Wednesdays....Dec. 12, 2006

So close, yet so far away......

It is going to rain tomorrow here in the mountains, so I took my Wednesday walk today.  I had plans of killing 2 birds with a single stone on my walk.  Winterberries for decorating and Winterberries for photographing some sock yarn that I was thrilled with.

Earlier in the week, I visited with a friend, just down the road a spell and noticed these lovely berries as I drove past.  I thought to myself....."Self, those berries would be perfect in a few planters and they would be free."

Now figuring that it would be a bit wet with all of the rain, I wore my plastic berks. Seeing the puddle in the tall grass once there....yep, good thing I work these shoes..........

Oh dear!  I don't think these plastic clogs are  going to do the trick..........I think I need me some hip boots!

My foot actually sunk down in the swampy bog up to my knees..........yuk!

Perhaps there is a reason why those lovely winterberries are still in the bog and not in a planter on someone's porch:(

Realizing that winterberries were not going to be making the trip home with me, I decided just to enjoy what I could take home with me..... a little piece of solitude in a busy day.

A mild, sunny afternoon so quiet that you could hear the constant chatter of the birds and squirrels preparing for the winter.  I love the colors of autumn moving into winter, don't you?  The grass that turns to warm flaxen straw against the golden highlights of an early setting sun, the evergreens and the cold steel grey of the streams with little whitecaps turning into ice.  I love this time of year in all of it's crispness!

Ok....so my neighbors probably thought that I had lost my mind trying to trek into the bog with my camera AND my skein of red yarn.....but you can't blame a girl for trying..LOL

Once home again, I found a suitable spot to take pictures of the red skein once my sopping socks were washed and hung to dry.....my little dining room Christmas tree :-)

I am so pleased with this yarn as red is THE hardest color to dye.  My 25 year old son is a die hard red soxs fan, and I wanted to make him a pair of Red Sox socks for Christmas.  With all of the sock yarn I have kicking around here, I couldn't justify buying any, so out came the dye pots and a few prayers. 

I think he is going to love these socks :-)

Socks and Stars.....Dec. 9, 2006

It was nice to pick the sock needles up again and finish these socks.  After using big 10.5 double pointed needles for mittens, the little sock needles were good to work with again.  The yarn I used was one of my own that happened to be a dyeing disaster and something I wouldn't sell.  Funny thing is, as much as I went ICK about the colors, my teenage daughter went WOW, COOL.  Must be an age difference thing............

With most of my holiday and gifted knitting finished, it was nice to turn my attention to some quality ME knitting.  The pattern is Lisa Lloyd's Cable Moss Vest and the yarn I am using is some Elann Highland Wool that I purchased last summer when someone was destashing.  I do so love knitting with Higland Wool!!

I absolutely love how this pattern is knitting up.  The yarn is crisp and the pattern is so easy to work with.  The dark color of the yarn was hard to photograph, hopefully I will get some better ones when the sun comes out again.

I don't know about you all, but I rarely have to tink back a row when I am doing cables. When I am working on lace, however.....ei yi yi..  It's knit a row, pull it back, knit 10 pull back 3.   The charts are structured the same way, so I don't understand why I have such a hard time staying on task with lace and rarely any problems with cables.  A conundrum for sure...  Maybe a left brain, right brain thing.  What ever it is, I am happy to be sailing right along with this pattern :-)

It's been pretty cold up here, so it has been a weekend of knitting and Christmas decorating. 
Stay warm ~~