Retirement, i.e., I Don't Have Time to Work

My DIL Missy, DD Chris and I visited Goodwill with the four grandkids during our visit to Bend in June. We came back to the house with this puzzle which was an absolute bear to work. DS Matty and his girlfriend Julia got sucked into the madness. In the end there were 35 pieces missing! We congratulated ourselves that we finished it at all. DS Josh thought we were all bonkers and refused to get caught up.
A couple weeks before the gathering Matty texted me that he and Julia were at Barnes and Nobles and had purchased a 1,000 piece wooden puzzle. He said he couldn't help himself. I quipped - are you sure all the pieces are there? Given the Bend puzzle, we both thought that was funny. This new puzzle was nearly impossible and even though nearly everyone worked on it over the weekend, it was slightly over half finished when everyone left. Amy sat down and corrected several sections before pulling out with her trailer. She said it was all she could do or she would never leave. I can't rebox an unfinished puzzle! No one in my family would understand and, that aside, I'm not sure I could do it anyway. I pressed on until yesterday when I attacked the final 40 or so pieces. I ended up with four holes and three extra pieces that will not fit the holes. The picture looks right, however Charlie has been batting pieces around the dining room. So anti-climatic.
On the other hand, I finished my "Walk for the Cure" scarf and got it in the mail. Of the three that I did, this one is my favorite. The phone rang this evening, which is unusual. Our phone is long distance from Reno so we almost always conclude that if the phone is ringing, it's a solicitor. It was Judi! She had received the scarf and absolutely loved it. I knew she's not a pink person so tried to amp up the pink while keeping true to the meaning.
I've been experimenting with dying, as an experienced dyer friend of mine calls the technique, laying it in. That means I have the dye pot heated already and I lay in my skein and don't disturb it. I am in love with the water-color wash effect. This was my first trial and I so wish I hadn't shot this in sun so you could see more clearly what I mean, and of course, I can't take another picture. I did use this technique it on the all skeins I dyed for my felted bags. Now I'm daring myself to try this technique for an entire garment!
For now I need something to knit. I dug through a bin of already spun yarn and pulled this out. I bought the fiber at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival quite a few years ago from a vendor called Balls of Fiber. The color pathway had something to with deserts - sunrise, sunset? Either one captures these colors. I calculated that I have close to 1,100 yards.
I've chosen this vest pattern from the Catwalk Two pattern book. The bodice is actually in lace but I know I don't have enough yardage for that, so will use plain stockinette. I'm counting on the handspun yarn to be the visual interest. I'll be cutting it really close on yardage, like I've never done that before!

We had a sleepless night last night. I saw Buster come to the door late in the afternoon, and when he put his foot to scratch the door, I saw that he had a dangling broken claw and called to Ian. So much drama and blood, but we ended up with the other dogs outdoors while we held Buster to clip the dangling digit. We were still cleaning up blood today. He slept on our bed, bleeding on the bedding which I've since washed , and Ian had to get up a couple times during the night to give him aspirin. No one in our bed slept well!
It's going to be a while before he can go on morning walks with me, so today I just took Sammie, and I'm so relieved that she was the only dog with me. We started late, about 9-ish. We hadn't gone far when a female coyote crossed the road right in front of us. I worked hard to call Sammie back, and no soon than I had her back then the male, and might I add it was the largest coyote I've seen, crossed the road following his mate. I thought I'd never get Sammie to come back and was completely shaken afterward. They stood on the hill above and watched us. I wasn't nervous for me. I know coyotes are masters at duping dogs and I knew we were going to be coming back the same way. I was happy, actually overjoyed, to see a couple of horse riders ambling along, and then turn up our road, as we returned. Yippee ka-yay!