Healing thoughts for Ms. Ella

This will be a short post, and I have lots more to say but we're having a bit of a crisis with Ella. On Wednesday night, I was grooming her back legs and felt something catch in the comb, thinking it was just a large mat that needed tending to, I went looking for it. I didn't find a mat, I found a quarter size laceration below her hind leg. So, off we went to the emergency vet and had it sown up, because she doesn't have sensory perception in her back legs and because the fur mites have greatly reduced the quality of her skin, we are worried about infection. She managed to get the e-collar we were sent home with off last night and bit off two of the stitches - the wound is still closed and we're heading off to our vet office this afternoon. Please send healing thoughts her way, poor girl, we're doing the best we can to keep her comfortable and healthy.

Bunny pictures

There has been a sad lack of pictures around this blog, lately! Here are some bunny pictures to make up for that...

Bennett's been cuddly boy lately - I'll snuggle him close to me and pet his nose and ears for a while and then put my arm around him and he'll just stay there, all cuddled up with me for as short as ten minutes and as long as an hour. Most of the time, I'm either laying down for or getting up from a nap when he does this - it's so cute but it makes me feel guilty that he doesn't have a friend to cuddle with when I'm not around. I keep telling him to wait until Thanksgiving - when we bring Maisie home!

Anyways, here's disapproving Bennett (he doesn't give this look very often but you can see his displeasure at an empty food bowl...)

Mr. Bennett all stretched out and cute, but mostly I put this pic in because you can see all his lovely angora fur.

And *poof* there goes all the fur!

The black splotches are the only places where his fur was going back in after we plucked him. I think it was the hot weather that we are having combined with a molt that left him very bare and pink! (You can see in the picture above, him saying "Mom, really? You have to take a picture of me like this?!?! Come on - give me a little dignity!)

And one of my all time favorite pictures:

Now, Bennett in his Halloween costume... Cowboy Bennett!

Lastly, yes, Ella still lives. It seems that she's decided to pull through :). She's very happy in her cage and also very much loves to come out for loves. Here are some pics of her (she's going to be a princess for Halloween, but we don't have any pictures of her in her costume, yet):

Catch up on knitting and spinning!

I've been a busy girl lately with knitting and spinning, here's a catch up on my latest finished projects...

First is my Ishbel shawl, which I got the cashmere solid purple yarn for up at a town near Laurie's family's cabin. Ultimately, when I was knitting it I decided that I wanted to do more lace repeats than the smaller size of the shawl recommended. I ended up doing one more set of repeats of the lace pattern than the larger size called for and decided to hold my breath that I would have enough yarn to finish it. Alas, when I was nearing the end, I realized that I did not have enough yarn to finish the shawl and I was either going to have to frog it all back to the extra repeats I did or figure something else out. I figured something else out in the end, when we were in Jerome, Laurie and I found some beautiful 100% silk handpainted yarn and bought it because it matched so well and seemed to be the answer to the problem. It worked out beautifully if I may say so myself. :) The silk adds a bit of weight to the cashmere on the edge and helps to hold the shawl on. I love the two yarns together and I'm excited to wear the shawl out somewhere soon. (Please let it cool off here!) Here are the pics:

This project has been done for a little while, it's the Baby Surprise Jacket that I knitted for my nephew, Paul, who is due late December. It's knit in sock weight yarn so it will be small enough for a newborn to wear, and is also superwash, so it can be thrown into the washing machine. Laurie isn't quite done sewing the buttons on, the pictures show 3 buttons, but there will be 5.

And finally, some spinning...

Here is my very first wheel spun handspun. It's Pagewood Farms, in the colorway "Butterfly". It's two ply (although I had set out to make it three ply - I didn't put enough twist in some of the singles to be able to chain ply it, alas a learning experience!), BFL and it's definitely lace weight or smaller. I still have the second halves of the bobbins to ply up, and then I think that it will be a small shawl (can you see I'm on a lace craze lately?) or scarf. I was thinking of giving it to my mom, but she doesn't have the best track record for taking care of hand knit things, so I'm hesitant to give her a handspun, hand knit item that can't go into the washing machine... Maybe I can spin her some superwash fiber sometime and not feel so bad about it's mistreatment. I ended up running this skein through the wheel a second time to add to it's plying twist, it looked barely plied when I was skeining it and I'm glad I added the extra twist because when I soaked it and lightly thwacked it, it has come out just slightly unbalanced, leaning toward under-plied. It is beautiful :)

Camelot!

So, yesterday was my first horsemanship lesson at Camelot! I was so excited and happy to meet everyone :). I did a lot of listening and talking - and a lot of showing off knitting projects - Mary and Michelle, the executive director and principal riding instructor, both knit and I just finished my cashmere/silk shawl and got to show it off! Everyone is so nice and if anything hit me big time it was number one - what a great community that I'm entering and number two - I have a lot to learn! Before this I've never taken horseback riding lessons, even when I was an able bodied person, I only did occasional trail rides, Andie and Jess where the horseback riders in our family. I think that mostly happened because when I went through my childhood "horse phase" we couldn't afford lessons for me, but could when Jess and Andie went through theirs. I definitely have unfulfilled horse dreams :), and I think that they are about to be made reality! Yay!

My instructor this season is Michelle and she and I totally hit it off right away. Between Harry Potter, plastic sheet protectors, the front of my curriculum notebook and lots of other things, we are a good match! My horse that I'm working with is Cayanna, she's beautiful and a Halflinger. (Hmmm, I just realized that I haven't linked you all to their website, here's the website and here's Cayanna's page.) As you can see from the pictures and description, she's a draft pony and their driving horse. Yesterday, I learned some basic horse safety info and got my curriculum and homework for the week (I have a test next week!) and groomed Cay. She was kind of grumpy, she's a mare and they can have their time of the month and be hormonal just like us and she didn't like me grooming her flanks. There are several different kinds of brushes, and they all do different things - a brush for combing manes and tails, loosening dirt, flicking off that dirt and a dandy brush to polish things off. Next week, I'll be learning how to lead a horse with the wheelchair. I will actually be working with Scout, one of their geldings, because Cayanna has a mind of her own and can be bossy with new students and it will be easier to learn with Scout. Apparently, the only thing that Scout is known for is trying to eat during lessons. (As an aside right now, I'm in the bunny room with Bennett and he's being hilarious, totally acting prissy and prancing around. He just laid down with his front feet all the way forward and his tail in the air - if only I had a camera. Now that I've said something about it he immediately jumped up like - why are you laughing at me?!?!?) Anyways, speaking of the bunnies, Michelle totally wanted me to bring in Bennett to say hi, she thought it was really cool that we road trip with them and they are litter box trained (ok Bennett is - but it's not Ella's fault that she can't control it, although she did go on me a few days ago and I was furious - it sprayed everywhere on me, I had to change all my clothes - ick!) Both Michelle and Mary have dogs that hang around the office and barn, we met Mary's dog at the intake interview - a great dane, and I met Michelle's dog, Bella, a chihuahua, yesterday. I'll have to bring Bennett in sometime when I'm not taking the bus out there, when Laurie has some time off. The season is long - it ends May 26th, so I'll probably have at least one time when Laurie doesn't have to work and we could take Bennett and show him off :). We have a creative transportation system in place to get me to Camelot which is in really North Scottsdale, pretty far from Chandler. I take the bus to Laurie's work and then she takes "lunch" and drives me out there. My lessons go from 3-4 pm and she has a class that start at 2:55 pm, so she drops me off around 2:30 pm and I sit and knit or help shred thirty year old documents for them. Yesterday, Laurie had to drop me off much earlier, the whole school was doing AIMS/PLAN/PSAT/etc and she had to proctor the kids with accommodations for the tests. Our little system works out well, and Michelle told me that lots of their students have creative transportation stuff like me, so I didn't feel so badly about hanging out in the office.

After Laurie picked me up from Camelot, we went over to TYF, and hung out for a bit, not as long as we normally do on Wednesdays but our friend Mandy came and I was excited to see her and show off my cashmere shawl to all of them. (Which reminds me that I need to photograph it to post! It turned out gorgeous and I'm really proud of it. Now that I'm done with it, I'm going though lace withdrawal, I was working on my February Lady sweater and was totally bored with it, even though it makes a good bus project. I'll have to start some new lace soon, I have some 100% silk that is calling to me...) By the time we got home, I was exhausted and had a huge headache, it was only 7:30 pm, but I got into bed and laid down until it was gone. Laurie and I ended up in giggle fits when my head finally felt better. I think I said some pretty silly things, and she kept repeating them to me until I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard. I was good to laugh with her because the night before we had fought pretty badly and I was really angry with her. Angry enough to go sleep on the couch (which I will NOT be doing again anytime soon). Even though my intention was to go to bed early because of my big day the next day, I ended up up most of the night, either uncomfortable on the couch or just awake fuming. Believe me, a night on the couch fixed the angry thing. Laurie said the next day when we talked about it that she was glad that I am so feisty because I probably wouldn't be doing this horsemanship program if I wasn't. So it's all over and forgiven, we just make each other very angry sometimes. Definitely though, the couch got it out of my system, it was the first and (hopefully) last time I do that!!!

I think that about sums things up for my first day at Camelot! It's going to be hard work, physically and intellectually, which I'm totally up for - I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd taken a test, so I'm a little nervous about remembering everything, because it's a lot of information all at one time! I'm looking forward to getting out of my comfort zone and I think that this will reap me benefits I can't even yet foresee. Well, I'm off to look at lace patterns on Ravelry!

Utter happiness

I'm so excited that it's been hard to sleep! I got accepted to the therapeutic horsemanship program that I interviewed at last week!!!!! I start my ground work and lessons on Wednesday! I won't be riding this season, but driving. :) I can't start driving until the weather cools down because my horse, Cayanna, has laminitis and it can flare up in the heat, so I'll be driving when the weather cools down into the 80s. It did cool down to that this week, but only because a huge storm rolled through the valley, and I don't think it will stick and it's going to be hard waiting until it does cool down. I go tomorrow to a tack shop in Scottsdale to get my riding/driving helmet and a pair of riding boots!!!! I'm not sure I can express how happy I am - they had just one spot left and I managed to slip in there! I'm greatly looking forward to doing this and am just beaming with the opportunity!

In other news, during that storm that rolled through this week, a lightning bolt struck down just down the street from us literally. It woke us up in the middle of the night - 12:03 am and scared me half to death. It was so close you could smell the ozone from it. Poor Bennett's afraid of thunder and he seemed pretty shaken up. A few minutes after the one on our street, another struck the park by our house, with almost equally loud thunder, although it was far enough away that we couldn't smell the ozone. The storm cloud was moving very fast and in about 15 min it had passed over us and we slept though the night with no other interruption. Crazy.

Well, I finally have my computer back to working order. Last night, Laurie and I took both our computers in to the Genius bar at the Apple store to make sure it was the battery that was the problem and to buy new ones. To our great surprise and delight, the woman who helped us gave us the batteries free. We couldn't believe it. $200 worth of new Mac batteries just given to us - God works in mysterious ways because we were able then to get a time capsule that we wouldn't otherwise been able to afford. Both our computers are at maximum for the amount of space left on them and being able to store pictures and movies on an external drive will be wonderful. I also got a new Ipod shuffle (in pink) for the bus rides to Laurie's work on Wednesdays (which are my horsemanship days, I'm taking the bus to Laurie's work and then she's going to use her lunch hour to drive me out to Camelot, so I'll be on the bus a lot in the coming months - the horsemanship season lasts until May 26), hopefully it will work better than Laurie's shuffle, which is pretty finicky.

In bunny news, I clipped toenails for the first time by myself (instead of the Brambley Hedge people doing it). We had been planning on doing for awhile, Bennett's nails have been getting really long and sharp, we finally had to sit down and do it because Ella broke a nail yesterday, pretty badly - lots of blood, and we just needed to do it before more nails got broken. It was very successful :) no clipped quick and Bennett was reasonably patient with us. They both look so cute wrapped up in towels like babies!

That's the happy news! I'm practically bouncing off of the walls I'm so excited!

Travels north

This last weekend, Laurie and I took a little day trip by ourselves up north a little. First we drove up to Prescott and had lunch at our favorite Prescott restaurant, the Prescott Brewery Company. I love their vegetarian pot pie and we stuffed ourselves, decided that this would be the main meal for the day and that we wouldn't really have dinner. The weather was very cool, even though it was predicted to be pretty warm there, a storm rolled in an the rain and clouds cooled everything down. We drove on from Prescott to Mingus Mountain with our windows rolled down until it started raining too hard to keep them open anymore. We took a little pause at Mingus Mountain, I took a little nap and Laurie sat and knitted (yes, you read right - Laurie's actually knitting something! A scarf for a friend out of some brown Malabrigo). Then we drove on into Jerome. We brought my scooter so that Laurie didn't have to push me on the steep roads of the mining town. It's perched on a mountainside, and the main road does switchbacks down the side of a steep hill. Our main stop in Jerome was Knit 1 Bead 2, a yarn and bead shop on main street. Even though we've been to Jerome quite a few times, we hadn't been to this shop before. It was up 20 stairs, so I parked the scooter at the base of them and scooted up stair by stair, sitting down frequently, but made it to the top! And boy was it worth it! It was a beautiful shop, so many gorgeous luxury yarns arranged by color and a little back room that had some spectacular deals. We came away with our wallets sufficiently lightened. I know that this is worthless without pictures, but currently I can't find our camera card reader, so it will just have to wait. We got some amazing silk, hand painted, strung with gold colored glass beads. The hand painted colors were the purple of my cashmere shawl, light green and light pink. I'm currently using it to finish off the mentioned cashmere shawl, and it's going to be oh so beautiful. I got some hand dyed BFL, a bone/wood shawl pin that I've been using as a hair stick, 5 balls of a cotton and linen blend in purple, to make a simple shawl/shrug out of. Some cotton silk in white that is just added to stash and a ring for my mom (which she loved). As the store was up 2o steps, they don't have very many people in wheelchairs come and visit. In fact, the owner said I was the first. She was very sweet in helping us maneuver though her shop, clearing paths so I could see everything. When we checked out, she presented us with several gifts for making the climb up the stairs and braving the non-accessible shop. She gave us each a heavy weight canvas bag (which is my new fiber bag) and a little baggie full of little knit knacks - a needle sizer with a ruler, a little pad of stickies, AND a Ravelry button!!!! I was so excited about the button! I was hoping to get one at the Estes Park Wool Market, but couldn't find a vendor with them. I was so happy to see that in there!

We finished our day out with one last stroll along main street, stopping for a little ice cream and water and at the end of the street, we found a little consignment shop and Laurie found a beautiful sun dress, that fit her perfectly and is very becoming on her. It is yellow, which is not a color that either of us usually go for, but this dress makes the color perfect. It's full length and flowy, with an empire waist and lots of swishy fabric. Laurie says it's comfortable and I'm hoping to make a little shawl in white to go with it, so that even though it's got speghetti straps, she could wear it to church. So, thus ended our beautiful day, Bennett very excited to see us home and a good night's sleep to sum up a perfect day.

Exciting news

I currently have two very exciting things going on right now that are non fiber related and am just bubbling with!

Last Thursday, I had an intake interview at a therapeutic horsemanship program. The name of the program is Camelot Therapeutic Horsemanship and they serve disabled children and adults, free of charge, teaching them horsemanship, which includes riding or driving, care of the animals and their surroundings, classes in horse physiology and nutrition and things of that nature. I'm absolutely estatic to join the program. They have one spot open for this season, on Wednesday afternoons, and I hope to hear back soon about if they are going to accept me into their program. The interview was awesome, it went really well and Laurie and I both really hit it off with the executive director of the program. We were there for 2 hours, touring their amazing totally accessible barn, meeting the horses and getting a feel for what I would be doing with them. I suspect that I will start of driving and not riding because I am over their weight limit, but they did tell me that they extend their weight limit when it is clear that the rider has the ability and core muscles to hold herself on the horse, without falling and endangering the instructor or volunteer if she were to fall. We discussed my disability and why I wanted to join the program. I have lofty dreams that one day, Laurie and I could do an overnight backpacking trip and take no wheelchair with us. Wouldn't that be amazing? I felt so good at the interview - talking to the director felt like family and they seem like a great community - they even knit and the director wants to learn to spin! I think that even if I don't get the spot that is open right now for this season, I will make myself available to teach or help with getting a knitting or spinning group together in their community. That would be very fun and a good way to really contribute. The only compensation that they ask for their services is that you pay it forward. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and praying hard that I hear back soon and that I can join their program! I'm still having horse dreams almost every night :).

The other happy news is that we are finally going to get Bennett a friend! I have been in contact with a rabbitry in Northern CA and she has a one year old female English Angora who is a black tort that will be joining our family in November when we go back to CA for Thanksgiving. I've very excited to have a new playmate for Bennett, poor boy has been lonely and really could use a friend. He's been escaping into the living room lately (where he's not allowed to go but where Ella's cage is) and will pop his little head up and look at Ella like - why don't you come out and play? - when she charges him and tries to nip him, he just looks sad. It will be good for him to be bonded with a new bunny, especially since she will be his age and they can play together. I'm looking forward to the fiber (!) and new bunny cuddles. We've already decided on a name (even though she actually has a name, although I would change it no matter what - it's awful - Taffy), her new name with be Maisie, which means "pearl". She's not spayed, so we will have to do that before they can be bonded so it will take awhile but it will be worth it to see the two of them together!

Ella is doing a little better, still having accidents and respiratory issues, but she's hanging on an eating like normal, so things are far less dire than they where about a month ago. We have no plans for bonding the three of them, Ella is happier in the cage and it just isn't realistic to put her in a diaper to control the accidents and see if she can be back free roaming again. Honestly, I don't think that she is the right temperament for Bennett and she is very angry from her abuse and neglect days and even more so with the poking and prodding that is necessary to see how she's doing. She is liking to be held lately, we might turn her into a lap bunny yet :). Anyways, she'll still be on her own, and get lots of loves until her time comes.

I think that's it for the happy news post! Like I said, I'm bubbling with excitement about both the new bunny, Maisie, and the possibility of horsemanship!

2 surprises!

This post is something that I've had in mind for a little while now, but both Laurie and my computers have decided to crash simultaneously (a problem with the batteries) and only work when they are physically plugged into the wall, which hasn't lent itself to posting very frequently.

Anyways, over this summer, I kept the longest secret of my life from Laurie for 5 weeks. My mom and I decided to surprise her with a new wheel, one that she has been wanting for a long time. The wheel is an Ashford Joy, single treadle, and I ordered it secretly from Tempe Yarn and Fiber, and kept the secret until it was time to unveil it! It was definitely worth biting my tongue over - I nearly spilled the beans about a hundred times! She is very happy with her new wheel, it lets her sit on the couch and tuck her leg under her just like she likes, treadling with the other foot. She's about to ply her first yarn spun on the Joy and it's beautiful, when it's all done, I'll take pictures and post it :). It was very wonderful to see her so happy - and SURPRISED!

The second surprise is related to the first... Since we just happened to have an extra wheel lying about the house (and Ashford Kiwi), I surprised Laurie again by taking up wheel spinning! I'm officially a wheel spinner. Right now, I have a little bit of fiber left to spin up and then ply my very first yarn on the wheel. I'm so spoiled, the first time I mentioned to my mom that I had started spinning on the wheel, she suggested that I should get one of my own. So, now I'm ordering a wheel for myself at TYF, hopefully placing my order on Friday. It will take a few weeks for it to get here, but it will be worth the wait! I'm getting a Schacht Ladybug wheel. She's beautiful and I have gotten to spin on one and it was wonderful! I'm so excited to get her!

So, those are the surprises that have been going on here lately, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to keep a secret that long again :).