The "C" word.

The animal hospital called yesterday to tell me that the results came back on the mass taken from Tana's eye. It's Squamous Cell Carcinoma. While I was trying to breathe again, the guy on the phone asked me if I knew what those terms meant. Yeah, I know, its CANCER. My dog has skin cancer. That's one word you never imagine you'll hear associated with your dog. I'll have to take her to an oncologist for a consult. The vet said they'd probably want to do a "further resection" on her eye and "aspirate the lymph nodes on that side of her body". Another surgery, ugh. My poor puppy. I asked about further treatment and he really didn't know, that's why they're referring me to an oncologist. I'll keep you all updated as we go along here.

How about another random picture just to lighten the mood?



The River Walk in San Antonio. We went to San Antonio last year for Lynn's nephew's graduation from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base. We stayed in a lovely hotel right on the River Walk, it was so beautiful there.

Breakfast cookies

Every year when I was little my dad would make Bisquick sausage balls for breakfast on Christmas day. I've made it a tradition to make them for my family every year now. I love these things!


Bisquick Sausage Balls

1 pound breakfast sausage

3 cups bisquick

2/3 cup milk

4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese



1. Heat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

2. Brown sausage, allow to cool.

3. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. You will probably need to use your hands so make sure the sausage is cooled enough.

4. Shape into 1 inch balls and bake 20 to 25 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this one. Have a happy holiday! I'm off to finish shopping for presents!

All is well

Tana came home late yesterday afternoon. She is doing just fine and her eye doesn't look bad at all. She has a couple of stitches that will have to be removed in two weeks. In the meantime she has to keep the cone on her head to keep her from scratching the sutures out. I don't know how I'm going to manage to keep that thing on her for two weeks. I've already discovered that it makes it very difficult for her to eat and drink. The edge of it pushes her dish away when she puts her head down to eat. I fed her by hand last night and this morning. The water dish is rather large so when she drinks the whole cone has to go in which poors water down her chin when she lifts her head, but again a smaller dish gets pushed away. Any suggestions you have that might make this easier for her would be much appreciated. I did zero knitting and crocheting last night. I felt so bad for Tana, I took the stupid cone off and just held her all evening. I put it back on her before bedtime and learned that thing is a pain to put on. I have to carry her up and down the stairs too, because she can't see them clearly. Now you all know what a complete softie I am when it comes to my dog.

In knitting news: I finished Lynn's hat. Here's a picture.

He loves it. Now I'm back to work on the Devil Baby Blanket. The baby will be here by year end, so I better knit fast!

Tana's going to have a rough day.

Resting peacefully with no idea what's in store.

Isn't she cute? I'm stressing a little today because my baby has gone to the vet for surgery. She has a mass growing on her right eye that must be cut out. They are going to have to take a little bit of her eyelids to get all of the mass. The mass was growing so it was necessary to get it removed before it got to large and she lost the eye completely. They are cleaning her teeth while she under anaesthesia too. I'm anxious for her to come home. She's going to be mad at me for days though.

Doesn't it look awful?

She going to have to wear one of those cone things on her head and that is so going to piss her off. I wouldn't like it either. I'll post again when she comes home and let ya'll know how she's doing.

More sewing and some partying.

Our crochet group drew names for a Holiday exchange. I drew Margie. She is a knitter as well as a crocheter. I planned to make her a DPN needle holder like the one I made myself last week. Then I learned Margie would prefer one for circular needles. So this is what I came up with:

This is what it looks like all folded up. I crocheted the hanger for it as well.

This is what the inside looks like. I picked the skull fabric because of this. Go see, it's really cool. So I knew she'd like the skulls. Last night was our crochet meeting and gift exchange party. Margie loved it. I'm so happy.

The meeting/party was great fun last night. My dear friend and "adopted little sister" came with me. This is Nicki:

She's working a scarf for a friend of ours. This next picture is a newbie to the group (I'm sorry I don't remember her name), Margie, Sherri and Mame. Sherri drew my name, she got me an awesome set of Harmony Sock DPN's. Thank you!!

This is Sandra and Sandy.

This is Susan, Deb and Angie.

Everyone had a good time, as usual. If you haven't joined us for a meeting, you really ought to come down sometime. Every Tuesday night at the O'Aces on Cheyenne and Rainbow.

I got sidetracked

I was planning on writing a blog post, but when I logged into the computer, I got sidetracked on EBay looking at iPod cases. Who knew there were so many different kinds of cases? Leather, silicone, crystal, aluminum, acrylic. Hard case or soft? Do I want an arm band, neck strap, or a belt clip? Too many choices. I'll have to decide later my brain is too far gone from all the holiday shopping hubby and I did today. Besides, I don't have any money left.

I'm tired just thinking about all the wrapping we have to do now. How are ya'll coming on your holiday shopping?

The knitting on the new hat is going slowly and hubby keeps asking when it'll be done. He claims his ears are cold. I shouldn't have told him the hat was for him, he's gonna make me nuts until I finish it.

How about a random pic, just for fun?

This was taken in Amsterdam at Vondelpark in May of 2005. Awesomely beautiful, huh? That park rocked, it was so pretty there.

Do you like cranberries?

I thought I'd share my favorite holiday recipe for cranberry salad. I've always loved this stuff. My family made it for holiday dinners when I was kid and now I make it.

Cranberry Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple (drained)
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups mini marshmellows
1 12 oz container of whipped topping

Directions:

1. Wash cranberries and remove any bad ones. Coarsely chop cranberries in a food processor. Place ground cranberries in a large, non-metal bowl and stir in sugar. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight.

2. Stir in crushed pineapple, chopped pecans and whipped topping. Fold in mini marshmellows.

Enjoy!

Prototype

I did a little bit of sewing today. Can you guess what this is?

It's a DPN Roll.

Those are US sizes 000 through 5 dpns. I have room to get sizes 6 through 11, including 10 1/2.

I made a fold down top to keep the needles from falling out.

The fabric is just some stuff I had here in my craft room. It came as a package with all three fabrics together. I'd bought it because I loved the color combinations. I'm glad i finally found a good use for it. I'm happy with the way it turned out, but I can definitely see where I'll make changes if I make another one.

100th post

Hey ya'll it's my 100th post! Woo hoo! Took me a while to get here, hopefully the next 200 won't take as long. You know that hat I mentioned on Monday? It's finished. I don't have any pics, I gave it to one of my hubby's friends. Mike had asked me to make him a hat because he was the only guy in the company who didn't have a one. It's finally gotten cold enough to need a hat here. I've started another hat now, this one is for my hubby:



This is Misti Alpaca Hand Dyed in worsted weight 4 ply. It's so soft and beautiful. It's a delight to knit with, I think I'm in love. This colorway is navy, tan and brown, I bought it at Nancy's Quilt Shop. They have another colorway in pinks and browns that I might have to go back for. I did go back and get some more alpaca to make a couple more hats.


This first one is more Misti Alpaca worsted in a solid blue. Color #6309. This is sort of a dusty, country blue.

This second one is Classic Elite Inca Alpaca color #3302. This one is very soft and has a bit of green running through the blue. I want to make a hat for our roommate, Dave. I knew it had to be blue, but I wasn't sure which one he'd like. He picked the Inca Alpaca. So I'm thinking I might pick up some beads and make an Odessa hat from the Misti Alpaca.

The guys really like this yarn too, it will be very soft and comfortable to wear. I told my husband he was getting an "upgrade" from $2.00 acrylic to $20.00 alpaca. He claimed he deserved it. Ha ha ha. Maybe just this once since he did give me an Ipod.

Bias Scarf

Have you tried knitting on the bias yet? It's really fun. I just finished a scarf in this technique. Whatcha think?

The yarn is TLC Essentials in Shaded Denim. Using size 10 straight needles, I cast on 24 stitches and used the entire skein. Finished size is 4 inches by 86 inches.

I've moved onto a new project. I'm making my first knitted hat. I'm using Bernat Satin in Ebony. Size 8 circulars using Magic loop. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Anniversary to me!

This past Thursday the 6th was my 14th wedding anniversary. 14 years!!! I can't believe I've let him live this long. :) He surprised me with a really cool present:

An iPod Nano. I love it! It has 8 gigs of memory and I've filled it half full already. I had a Rio Carbon that was 5 gigs and completely full. The volume button on it had broken (on loud), I've been using headphones with an in-line volume control for quite some time now. Hubby decided I just couldn't have a broken mp3 player anymore. He's really quite sweet sometimes. Anyhow, I was able to upload all the music I had previously copied to my laptop for the old player. It took over 5 hours for the computer to convert all the songs files (from Rio's file type to iPod's file type). I had over 1000 songs. The file type iPod uses must be smaller somehow, because it took up a little less space than before.

The iPod requires you to use iTunes to manage your files. Having access to the iTunes store could be a really bad thing for me. I downloaded a handful of music videos just so I could see how the video quality is on the Nano. It's really clear and looks great. Those cost me $1.99 each. Songs are $0.99. I have to resist the urge to look at the music, I could spend a fortune! Instead I have been listening to Podcasts, they're free. I've really enjoyed them.

Here are some of my favorites so far:

CRL with Vickie Howell

Knit Picks Podcast

Lime and Violet's Podcast

Yarn Craft this one is from Lion Brand yarns and the current episode has a wonderful interview with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

I still have a few others to listen to, I'll let you know if I like them. No, they aren't all about knitting, I did download a couple of other subjects.

I finally got it right

It took a few tries to get the pattern right, but here they are. Colinette Jitterbug socks in the Jay colorway, one skein, five size 2 / 2.75mm Knit Picks double point needles.

The color distribution is pretty wild. I really do like it and I'm glad I went with a plain ribbing rather than a lace design. Here are a couple of detail pictures.

I cast on 64 stitches and worked a 1 1/2 inch p2, k2 ribbing cuff. For the leg, I worked a 5 1/2 inch rib as followes--with 16 sts on each needle, p1, k2, p2, k4, p2, k4, p1. (Note: I did shift one stitch to the needle on the right all the way around to make the different rib patterns match up, sort of.) I made a slip stitch heel over 32 sts for 32 rows. The foot is plain stockenette. I'm very happy and hubby likes them too.