Greetings from our temporary home! We're dog sitting again, so have been playing lots of ball--our furry friend prefers the ball to be kicked, but will accept throwing on occasion. It also has to be the right ball, so he chooses among the many he has available to him. As for the humans, we just try not to step on them and trip over them as they lie around underfoot. When I was given a crate of his supplies, I was told in a low voice (to avoid him hearing), that Snowflake the bunny, the dog's one plushie toy, was in need of help. Upon examination, I discovered that poor Snowflake was suffering from a severe laceration of the leg and was leaking stuffing. Since this is clearly the leg that gets pulled on the most during games of tug o' war, based on the fact that it's about three times longer than the other leg, it was clear that emergency surgery was indicated. I got out my needles and threads and got to work. Once the surgery was done, it seemed a bath was in order, so into the washing machine she went. The dog was busy elsewhere during this time, so didn't know any of this was going on, which is just as well.
I've had a little time these past couple of nights to play with some yarn and I finished a kumihimo braid. I made it to go specifically with a pendant that I acquired by deconstructing a necklace I got at a charity shop several years ago.
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| photo by Bill Burke |
To make the braid, I used 6 strands of a nylon ribbon yarn that a friend gave me a while back, and 2 strands of a chunky boucle taken from a scrap ball. The cabochon in the top right of the pendant is a pale purple--not so light as to be lavender, though. Rather than leave the ends hanging plain, I sewed them in a small spiral, leaving the fringe. For some reason, I've been quite smitten with these braids sewn into spirals and am always thinking of new colour combinations and embellishments to go with them. Ah well, I have plenty of yarn scraps to play with--at home at least--and it keeps me out of trouble. It's very meditative. Making the braids is mindless so I can do it even if I'm tired--no counting or anything. Once the yarn or thread is set up on the disk, I don't need any other tools, either, so it's a good thing to take with me when I want to have a project just in case I find myself with time on my hands. It was difficult to decide which stitching projects to bring with me when I was packing (same with books, although the e-reader helps there), but I did make sure to cut the yarns for a couple more braids in case I finished this one. I started the next one last night. I find that this is a good way to use certain novelty yarns that I've been gifted, particularly ribbon yarns. I wouldn't like them crocheted or knitted, but they work well for kumihimo. Many of these yarns were very popular at one time and people were making scarf after scarf. Now they've gone out of style and people don't want the yarn anymore. They're fun yarns with gorgeous colours and textures, but the scarves made with them just aren't my thing. I love using the yarn this way though and I'm glad they can be used.
Well, I think Himself wants to go outside, so I'm off for a stroll around the grounds in the dark. Hope you're having a pleasant day, whatever you're doing!
12 comments:
Well done on repairing and cleaning Snowflake the bunny.
Dogs love to play don't they ... visiting a friend earlier her dog was playing with a rope type toy ... apparently they are good to enjoy tug-of-war type games with.
All the best Jan
Oh yes--our dogs used to love playing rope! 🙂
It’s pretty nice for your friends that they have a regular dog-sitter to call on, but also a built-in restoration service. And a wash lady, too. It’s a full service package!
We try to provide excellent service 🙂 I must be honest though --I was doing laundry anyway because our washing machine at home stopped working just before Christmas. I washed some stuff by hand in the kitchen sink, but I did have a few weeks worth of other stuff that needed to be laundered. I brought it with me.
Well done, Emergency Surgeon Shari! I'm sure the repaired toy will geet a lot of love! Nice work on the jewelry piece!
Your leg stitching story reminds me of when my daughter was very young. She had a stuffed dog she called Snoopy. And our real dog Harley ate the leg off. I found the leg, and attached it, and then what did Harley do? He ate off the head. Now that was catastrophe. Luckily we could find another one of the dogs, but I still have the original stuffed away in the closet. :) One day I should stitch him together and give him to my daughter. I love your necklace too. It came out great. Have fun with your 4 legged charge.
Thanks, Jeanie--poor Snowflake takes a lot of rough treatment.
Erika, your comment made me think of our daughter and the Little Roo one of her grandmothers gave her. She used to wear out the arm over and over so he was repaired numerous times and one of his ears had a circle that was almost worn through. Then one day she lost Roo. She got a new one but never took to it and went for her Garfield instead. Then I had to repair his arm--LOL I have no idea why she was so drawn to Little Roo--she never liked Winnie the Pooh stories. But she always loved Garfield.
Shari- We have the same thing here with balls. Scruffy is very particular as to WHICH ball he wants to play with at a particular time. lol If I throw the wrong one he will just sit and look at it and then bark for me to throw the right one (his choice). Little Coco will chase whatever I throw most times. So much fun.
Oh- Scruffy also prefers the ball to be kicked but indoors that is a NO.
I have an 'animal hospital' upstairs where all animals that need amputations or repairs go to get healed. Sometimes, Scruffy will stand at the bottom of the steps and bark up the stairs (it's blocked off so he can't go up there) to remind me that Giraffe or Monkey or Pinky is on the operating table.
I have never seen that kind of braiding but it is beautiful.
Enjoy house sitting and I hope you and Bill have a wonderful weekend. Diana
Bill keeps trying to explain to Finn that all the balls are the same. Clearly, Finn disagrees. 🙂 Have a great weekend, Diana and don't forget about the patients. I guess Scruffy won't let you!
Too bad you didn't take a before and after picture of the dog toy. Would be fun to see how the surgery went. LOVED your description. Got a chuckle out of it. Good use of the fun yarn. You're right it used to be quite popular, though the trend didn't last very long. I thought many of the fun yarns were scratchy when used for a scarf, though I did have a couple of fuzzy ones.
At the yarn shop where I used to teach there were so many different types of novelty yarn and some of it was breathtaking, but it always looked better to me in the display than knitted or crocheted. And it was so expensive. I laughed one day several years ago when Bill handed me a bag of 12 skeins of eyelash yarn that he found in a charity shop and paid one euro for. I still have some but have used most of it in weaving.
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