Look Who Came to Visit!

Nothing breaks up a slow day at the office like company.  It was the perfect day for Abby and her mama to stop in for lunch.

  

You can’t tell it, but she’s grown a LOT.  When I made her sweater, she was barely 7 inches long and 9 inches around.  Now, she’s 11×11.  Another sweater is in order. 

It’s not a great shot - camera phone - but maybe that gives you a better idea of how much she’s grown.   Mugsy still isn’t sure she’s really a dog, and had to spend most of the visit in tucked under the Knight’s arm, because he REALLY thought lunging at Abby was the way to get to know her.  Another reason that when the time comes, we won’t be adding a puppy to our household…

Our Little Devil!

The Knight and I both thought it was the perfect costume. The Prince had other ideas. (Maybe next year, I’ll make a felted crown instead?) Yep, that is Pop’s hand you see on the right, helping Mugsy pose for the ding dang photo.

Okay, it’s too small. We were pretty sure our boy needed a large, but there were none to be found in the costumes we liked. The extra large looked huge. (Note to self: Mugsy ain’t skin ‘n bones.) So, it wasn’t comfortable, and the head piece fit not at all, really. That didn’t stop my mother inlaw (let’s call her MJ since everyone else has some sort of name) and Pop from TRYING to cram Mugsy’s thick neck and swelled head into the bit o’ fabric.

It COULD have been a cute costume. See the potential?!

We did have one “treater.” It’s hard to even threaten a trick or treat when you’re about a pound and move from one human’s hands to another. Abby’s sweater fits perfectly! I’m tickled pink, as I had to really fudge the pattern to attempt to make it small enough for the bitty gal. The fact that she moves comfortably in this sweater makes me happier than you can imagine. There’s room for a bit of growth, but a slightly larger wool version in self-striping sock yarn is in my queue.

Facts:

Pattern - Dandy Dog Sweaters, Mocked Cable by Fiber Trends
Needles - size 6 straights, size 5 dpns
Yarn - TLC Baby in White Sparkle
Modifications - Too many to list. Everything was shorter.

An exceptionally quick knit, and truly, probably the most gratifying yet. Abby is content, her owners are stupid-happy, enough so that they brought her up to our house (gee, a whopping 1/2 mile away!) for me to see.

Now, back to packing. The laptops are going, as is the never-ending Tofutsie sock (I love this yarn and pattern, and I hate that it keeps getting shuffled aside!), Fred’s Yarn for the Knight’s sock, and a certain blue alpaca lace. MJ’s birthday socks might go too, because I plan on lots of down time, which means lots of knitting. Transit to and from alone will afford me 8 hours of knitting!

PS - If I settle on a yarn for the cabled headband, that’s going too.

Howdy, Neighbor!

We now return to Dogs on Thursday, already in progress.

Blogland, meet Abby. Abby, meet blogland.

No, no, read the title folks. Calm down. You’ll likely get advance notice if/when we make an addition to our family. This is our dog sitter’s new baby. She’s a bitty, wee, one pound chihuahua, and her human parents couldn’t be more excited. She will come visit our household tomorrow evening. The Knight has seen her, as Neighbor Boy had to pick her up from his girlfriend’s work on Monday (Neighbor Boy also works with us, in addition to his dog sitting duties and our shared volunteer work at the firehouse), so Abby got to ride in the Knight’s work truck across town.

I’d actually planned this post several weeks ago, when I learned the arrival date of the little pup, and as we work through our grief, it’s time to celebrate the living. Mugsy is settling in at work better than expected, so my evil plot to make it a permanent “visit” won’t be met with an resistance by the inlaws. In fact, my father inlaw has been able to use Mugsy’s cute little “groundhog” begging pose to teach Shadow (the Knight’s grandfather’s sheltie) to sit up too. Evidently, like people, dogs have different learning styles. After nearly two years of trying to teach Shadow said trick, he pulled it off successfully after mimicking Mugsy yesterday. (This photo documents one of the earliest attempts. Note the “cheat” with Shadow’s paw bracing against my father inlaw’s arm!)

Shadow thoroughly enjoys having Mugsy here too, and wanted to make sure EVERYONE got that. This morning, he refused his biscuit until Mugsy arrived, so that they could eat together. Seriously. How sweet is that?! There are two darling photos trapped in my phone of Mugsy in Pop’s lap (TRUE job security, when he has the man whose name is on the front of the building wrapped around his little nubby tail), and of Mugsy and Shadow napping together. The Knight says the quality is too poor to share, but we’ll see about that.

This seems like a good time to mention that progress continues on Fred’s Garden. Perhaps after this weekend, it will be ready for a photo shoot. I don’t know that we’ll get any flowers planted this fall, but the Knight has mulch plans for Saturday. It has been a great source of grief therapy for the Knight, and will be a lovely memorial for all of us.