Out to lunch

My lunch breaks often look like this:

Where I attempt to solve whatever riddle has lately been plaguing me about things I do not know how to do. In this case: Tunisian crochet, i.e. afghan stitch. I have done more than it looks like, because the whole thing just loves to curl up on itself. It was supposed to be 2 inches longer, but I will make do. If I make it through this process, it will be a fluffy thing made from some bulky leftover yarn from my brother’s hat. A cozy, in fact, something to put my phone in to prevent scratching, though I’ve never understood why electronics need to be cozy anyway.

I have remembered, however, that one thing I hate about knitting is that you have to try to work with the &*$%&* needle while it has yarn on it, and this technique, while promising, suffers from that same irritating problem. So. $&*(&^%#$%^.

In other news, Wesley is out to lunch in a different way, just being himself. First he ate my yogurt. Then my tomato and mushroom sauce and noodles. Then he ate a Sharpie pen – blue (non-toxic and water-based, luckily). He’s all ready for Halloween!

Nota bene, btw: tomatoes, mushrooms and grapes are toxic to dogs, esp. grapes. They damage their kidneys. Just FYI, now that I’ve smacked my own forehead over it.

This dog does not know boundaries. The blue is actually more pronounced in person, although he appears to have been wearing it off gradually. The other side of his face looks like he’s drooling blue ink. Charming, I promise. Also, the floor is spotted blue. That was my favorite part. *sigh* He’s lucky he’s cute. Do you suppose parents say that about their children when the children wreak havoc?

Going to be having adventures for the next couple of days. Hopefully I can let loose some info about recent developments soon. Not quite time yet!

Part 2 of 4: Flaming Dogs

So this one day I found an opportunity to make a costume, and I took it.

I love costumes, for one. I plan on making my Halloween costume this year. This costume, however, was for my dog Wesley. Once I got the idea, I knew I’d have to do it since I’ve learned rather well in the past couple of years that there really is no time like the present.

So Wesley now has a flame jacket.  What particularly IS Wesley in a cutaway jacket with flames, you might ask?  I’m not sure. I like to think he might be a dressed-up biker. Or perhaps a magician. Maybe he is a high school rebel. Maybe he’s into auto racing. Perhaps he’s a stuntman. I feel there are many opportunities to add a couple of items to this jacket (a bow-tie, a hat, etc.) and make Wesley into something excellent. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure he’s living life on the edge.

It was … entertaining … making flame appliques. Tiny flame appliques. I considered it a trial run for the flame quilt that my brother still wants me to make him. I’ll be sure to make those flames bigger, because these were awfully fiddly to manage.

The jacket itself was made by measuring Wesley and then cutting a piece of fabric to his specifications. the coat you see there on the left had to be altered to add more shoulder room, and then the neck had to be taken in. When it was done it actually fit him rather well. Or at least, it fit him as well as he would allow. He’s a rather active dog. He did not, however, try to eat the jacket, which was good.

There he is with his friend Travis, and as you can tell, it was very hot that day.  Oh, the occasion? Wesley was supporting Austin Pets Alive, a group whose goal is to make Austin a city whose shelters do not have to euthanize prospective pets. There was a costume contest. Wesley did not win, as he was beat out by a lovely russet lady in a tutu, and a gentleman dalmation in chaps and a hat.

Wesley conceded gracefully and consoled himself by soaking himself in a pool of water and then lying down in the dirt.

Up to some quilting, cooking and stuff …

Prepare for an extremely random post of different stuff. The annual fundraising luncheon I co-organize is happening in 1/2 a week. Six hundred something people for lunch. So not only am I tired, I’m feeling sort of scatterbrained as well. Coherency is not my strong suit at this point. Collating large quantities of data is.

So I’m really, really excited because I finally bought a walking foot attachment for my machine, and a 1/4″ walking foot. Can you tell I’m thinking of making another Large Size Quilt? I must be crazy.

I’m not sure if I should admit this, but I’ve never gotten any extra feet for my machine. I’ve been shy of learning new techniques for my machine, so for a long time I just stuck to the standard metal machine foot. Eventually I graduated to the zipper foot and others. I’m behind on learning machine gadgetry because I am self-taught. I figured out four feet by myself, and honestly some of it, well, it never occurred to me that some of the attachments existed (a ruffler foot? honestly!).

To educate myself about feet and what they do, I bought this book one day when I found it at Half Price Books. <– the Sewing Machine Attachment Handbook. It’s pretty good. There are a crazy number of things that you can do with machine attachments, as it turns out. Ruffling, pleating, smocking, hemming, cutting, darning, whatever. The book has quite a bit of history about machines and their attachments, which I found really interesting, partially because one day I’d like to own an antique machine. Anyway, if you’re interested in crafting gadgets or maybe you’re self-taught like me, it’s an interesting read.

In other news it’s farm market season again, so I brought home a bunch of leafy greens (I love lettuce with the roots still on), beets, eggs, fennel, zucchini and more! I’m (as usual) not thrilled with the hot weather, but I am excited that it’s produce season again. This year I’m going to join a CSA if I find one I like. I’m also starting to cook more again. Yesterday evening I cooked a really nice sweet asparagus and lentil soup – has carrots, onion, peas, roasted garlic and red bell pepper with prickly pear jelly and hot curry. For lentil soup, it’s on the pretty side, and it’s spicy and sweet. I made about a gallon of it, so it’s good that I like it.

Wesley has completed Obedience Training part 2. He took his test with two very excited Staffordshire terriers, a funny Corgi/bulldog mix, a crazy dorky Husky and a chilled out Labrador. Everyone passed the test, which was staying in place while the owner was out of sight, and then coming to the owner on command past a plate of food, sitting in front of us, and then heeling back to home. I must give most of the credit to my mother-in-law, who spent a lot of time training him while we were on vacation. Next I think we’re going to do agility classes since he has the basic commands down. This apparently involves lots of running around and using equipment (for me as well), which I think he will find awfully fun and interesting. He still has tons of energy that not even walking 3-4 miles a day can burn off.

Anyway, I’m 90% done with my new Memory quilt, I’m excited to say, and when I have some spare energy I’ll explain my rather abstract concept for it and how it ended up looking.

Woo! Back to … well, I’m going to sleep actually. Ta!