Never A Dull Moment With An Aussie

I swear I will never laugh at another dog companion with a dog that gets into endless mischief.  (I'm sorry Ann Marie!  It seemed Kolbe's endless mischief was funny but now I see how harrowing it can be). :-(    I have been duly chastised.

Let me tell you about last weekend's adventure. Stan had just gone grocery shopping and was putting the groceries away while I woke up calmly sipping my coffee.  He had let Zephyr outside so he wouldn't keep grazing through the bags and running off with goodies.  After a while he said, "Gee, he's awfully quiet out there and hasn't bothered us for a long time."  So I said "Well, you better check what he's up to then."   Sure enough he comes running back in to tell me he has a rat and can't get it away from him.  I run out in my pjs and slippers in the wet grass to see him chewing on a big rat with the long tail dangling out one side of his mouth.  Of course, no way is he going to drop this delicacy.  Sure enough, as soon as he sees me, he swallows it while running away.  I gagged as I saw the tail slither down his throat.   Ewwww.

Run in the house, find the peroxide.  Pour it down his throat and bring him in.  Minutes later he throws up the whole rat, amazingly still intact.  Double ewwwww as it is rather mangled.  I called the vet to make sure I needn't do anything else and hen vomited about 6 times more.  Only bile was left so that's ok.  I had no idea if the rat had been poisoned or not so best to get everything up.  Whew.  Can I stand it?  No.  He settled down beside me after all that while I let the adrenaline rush dissipate and calm down myself.  Nothing like an antic like this to wake you up faster than a double espresso latte!

Oh, and let's not forget the TMJ night splint.  He had gotten it twice and chewed it in half but I was able to fix it with a denture repair kit.  Well, he got it again and I think this may be beyond repair.  I don't have $600 for another one so when I have the courage I'll give repairing it a try but it's in a very sorry state.

Lets, switch channels for a bit.  On a more productive note, I made two new bags for the etsy shop with more to come of new fabrics I've picked up over the last few festivals I've been to.

I've done some spinning too!  I spun 2 braids - 8 ounces merino/tencel from Funhouse Fibers.  From this:

To this:

I got 2068 yards of singles in a lace weight.  Don't know what I'll knit yet or even if I might turn it into a 3 ply.  Undecided.  I'll know when the right project comes along.

I've also done some knitting.  I finally finished the Trellis and Fins top. 

I'm very happy with how it came out and may enter this into the fair this fall.

I also tried my hand at brioche and made a hat.  I was so engaged by the process that I will be taking 2 advanced brioche classes this month at Knitting Lab in Manchester.

I'm currently knitting a shawl during the Knitting Dish Podcast KAL and am on the border.  I really love this design and I think these deep stash yarns look great together.

It will look like this after blocking:

I cast on another shawl as well and it is a  tribute to my dear Gryphon.  I'm calling it Gryphon Feathers because that is what the shawl looks like to me.  I'm knitting it with a pure silk dyed in the colors of Gryphon's fur.  I was knitting the Horus shawl with this yarn but could not understand the German translation of the pattern well enough to grasp what to do after I was half way through.  It is a shame because it was looking beautiful.  I think this shawl will be better though with this yarn and I'm adding copper lined teeny tiny beads down the feather spines so they will have the subtlest hint of glint here and there.

It will look like this:

That's it for now.  Going to relax with some podcasts and knitting.

Thought for the day:  Poop happens.....Just pick it up and move on.......