Of course, Marie Cashmere has a blog. Everyone has a blog. I couldn’t think of how else to tell the story of Marie other than just writing it in first person from her perspective and making it a blog. So, The Cashmere Chronicles have begun. Right now there is her ‘About’ page and a single blog post introducing herself and laying the ground work for her story to begin. The question has been posed as to whether she should bring her loyal companion, Grace the Yellow Lab, along with her. If you wouldn’t mind popping over to her blog and letting her know whether you think she should take Grace or leave her behind that would be wonderful. You can participate in the Marie Cashmere story even if you’re not in the Choose Your Own Adventure Club. The more people to participate in this project the better it will be and the more interesting it will become over time.

Speaking of the Choose Your Own Adventure club I’ve added a few ‘pre-adventured’ listings to my www.buydanido.com retail site. These listings are for just the base clubs I offer, no extra goodies and will allow you to just pay through that site without having to get an invoice from me. These are great if you just wanted to do the ‘yarn and/or fiber’ only options and don’t want any of the goodies, stitch markers or other ‘sub-plot’ options. To get this baby rolling if you’re interested in the ‘pre-adventured’ listings you can get 15% off today and through the weekend on those listing by using code ‘cyoakickoff’. This code will expire on Sunday night, so if you want to get in on these listings buy this weekend for that discount. Next week I’ll be sharing a special discount code for the full Choose Your Own Adventure clubbers, so keep checking back. Also, occasionally there will be special discounts offered on the Marie Cashmere blog, so be sure to keep up with her as well for special discount codes.

There’s only 16 days left to get your club listing picked out and paid for to be in on the very first Choose Your Own Adventure shipment starting the first week of September! I’ve stocked up on some great yarn, fiber, goodies, stitch markers from the Twice Sheared Sheep and have lots of ideas for each of the possible ‘themes’.

Later tonight there will be an update on www.buydanido.com with some of my new luxury sock base; an alpaca/cashmere/silk blend as well as a few hanks of lace weight in my Sweet Lace base (merino/silk).

I’ll post pictures of the new yarns tomorrow. In the meantime you may want to check out the newest column for Fiber Friday on HandMadeNews.org. While you’re there maybe you want to check out my Feature article as well: Dive Right In.

My motivation died. It went peacefully in the night about a week ago. I awoke one morning to find it cold and lifeless and officially gone from this mortal coil. With it went my inspiration, my ambition and my need to put on make up. I assume it died from heat exhaustion considering it’s 115 degrees most days in lately in Las Vegas and in my car (which is currently sans operation a/c) it’s usually twice that. It stands to reason that it simply gave up under the oppressive weight of the heat of a Vegas summer.

I have a huge list of things I need to accomplish before school starts in three weeks. I have an even huger list of things I need to accomplish like rightthissecond. What am I doing instead?

Searching for Wollmeise on eBay. Reading blog posts about Wollmeise and why it’s the wonder yarn from Heaven. (Which I still don’t get but I think I’ve been swept up in the hype.) In between bouts of stalking Wollmeise in the wild there is also activities ranging from playing Bejeweled on Facebook, being actively homesick as I consider the nice 80 degree weather in my hometown right now, planning trips I can’t afford to take and imagining my life when I’m ‘grown up’ and have a dye studio that doesn’t require me to cover the front of the dishwasher in plastic wrap.

There should be an update of new items on my  new retail site: www.buydanido.com in the meantime you can use code ‘ripmotivation’ for 10% off anything in there now. With one exception, use code ‘takeitaway’ for 15% off the hank of Night Fire Worsted because I am tired of looking at it and it’s been in my shop for far too long and it should be paying rent at this point. The great thing about this new site is that those codes work automatically so it takes the discount off BEFORE you pay unlike with Etsy or Artfire, so there’s no need for me to refund anything via paypal. It’s like a real shop!

I’ll be dying some new lace, sock and dk weights for the shop this week and will have new spinning batts up mid week next week. Remember the new Choose Your Own Adventure Club starts September so if you want in on that first month now is the time to sign up. I promise I will reanimate my cold dead motivation before then.

Speaking of dying yarn/fiber, I need to go in search of more powdered citric acid if I’m going to dye anything any time soon.

OH, I finished the Love Blanket:

I am currently knitting another one to test the pattern. It’s baby blanket sized so I’m doing the new one in a bright yellow acrylic/wool blend. I’ve made some changes to the first few rows so that the holes aren’t as big, better for baby fingers/toes I think. Overall though I really love how the first one turned out and I’m excited to be writing the pattern for this. I think it’ll make a great ‘heirloom’ baby blanket and something a little more interesting to knit for a baby gift than the standard basket weave or feather and fan patterns. I’ll be needing at least one other test knitter for this pattern before I release it, if you’ve got roughly 500 yards of worsted weight yarn hanging around and a hankering to knit up a giant doily let me know, I should have the pattern nearly finished and ready for testing in a few weeks.

Okay, so now I’m off to find citric acid and force my way through this non motivation period of my life. Wish me luck.

First we’ll start with a PupWatch ‘09 update: Allie Mae is doing much better, definitely on the mend. She’s completed her first set of antibotics and her abscess has cleared up entirely. Her tummy troubles are better and she’s even playing a little bit and chasing her bobo (her favorite toy) and can jump up and down off her favorite chair now too. She still needs help getting on and off the bed but we’re getting there. Also, the girls are 3 now! Their birthday was July 10th but our poor Allie was so sick we completely forgot about it until the other day.

Secondly, I’m getting really into sewing. Because I am the kind of crafty nerd who researches everything I’m into, I’m asking for sewing blog links from you guys who happen to sew as well. I’m interested in maybe getting into quilting, but currently I’m just into making little accessories. I’d really like to find some patterns for stuffed animals or toys I can make for my niece who is due in September.

In the meantime; here’s another sewing projects I recently finished.

This is the Business Card Wallet pattern from KeyKa Lou. It’s perfect for me. One side holds my business cards and the cards of various people I pimp regularly (Mike and Knit Las Vegas namely.) and the other side holds my credit cards, ID, etc. I used Velco instead of magnetic snaps because I didn’t want the magnets to ruin my credit cards, but I think I like it better anyways because it lays lat better. I’ll probably make more of these for friends and gifts for the holidays. It was a super quick project, even after I put the flap on backwards and had to rip it out and reposition/sew it. Only a couple of hours for the completed project.

Next I’m making some of these Box Wallet and Pyramid Pouches for knitting notions.

I finished the Angora Sweater of Doom but unfortunately it doesn’t fit me properly in the stomach area so I’m going to attempt to alter it with my sewing machine and cut the excess fabric away so it fits. This is where it’s at right now. We’ll see in a few days if my altering works. I haven’t quite worked up the nerve to try it yet.

In the WIP department, I’ve picked back up the Love Blanket project.

I’m hoping to have this done before Mike and I’s anniversary next month. I’m making really good progress on it, I just have to figure out how I’m going to expand it the rest of the way out because the doily pattern I’m using for the center is nearly finished and it’s not going to be big enough for a blanket. I’ll probably write up the pattern for this when it’s done if it turns out okay. It’s in the same vein as the Hemlock and Girasole blankets from Jared Flood, just with a different center doily pattern.

Because I am evidently becoming a crafter of many persuasions here is a picture of some Pumpkin Spice Muffins I made this morning as well. If anyone is interested I will gladly post a recipe, but it’s pretty basic.

And in spinning/dying news:

Cotton Candy Trinity blended batts

Waste Not Want Not Blended Batts

Wildflowers Blended Batts

And Handspun:

Wool, Natch hand spun lace from Natch Woolies Bon Bon Club.

There is also some new lace weight and sock yarns hand dyed specifically for Knit Las Vegas in the shop now:

These are the sock yarns. The lace weights are almost gone and I don’t have a decent picture of those.

Be sure to check out the Choose Your Own Adventure Club page and information, we’ve already got a few people signed up and it’s definitely going to be fun. I should have the first installment in the Marie Cashmere Chronicles up in the next few weeks. In the meantime if you’d like to offer some ideas for possible character traits or background information for her, I’m taking suggestions now and building her personality.

I am please (thrilled!) to announce the new incarnation of the DaniDo Crafty Club concept. Click the image above to go to the club homepage for a full listing of options and the whole idea laid out for you, but I will do my best to break it down here for you now.

Here’s the idea: I’ve always wanted my club to be as interactive as possible. That was the whole point really, I wanted people to be able to participate in the club and feel as though they have some ownership in it. This new club is the epitome of that idea. In simple terms: you choose your own club. You pick from the list of options to create a completely one of a kind club for yourself. If you want just 100% Merino sock yarn, every other month, with no goodies, no patterns, no stitch markers, no nothing; now  you can get that. If you want all the goodies, with all the extras, with a variety of yarns; well you can get that. If you want fiber instead of yarn, or if you want lace weight instead of sock weight, or if you want some lace weight, some sock weight, some fiber, some goodies, a pattern and no stitch markers; well, YOU CAN GET THAT!

In addition to this fully customizable club that caters to exactly what you want and how you want it, I will also be telling a story. There are now more themes available for the clubs than just music; we are now offering a nature, pop culture or surprise me theme as well. As I write the story of Marie Cashmere, the intrepid and often goofy knitting heroine, you will be able to choose your own adventure to follow along with all featuring the theme you choose. Some of Maries adventures may include touring with a band, or being apart of a senatorial scandal or just communing with nature somewhere in rural Washington. It’s up to you to choose what you want Marie to do and how she is to do it. Every month as I work on the story lines for Marie I will ask for input on plot points so that you all will help me determine the story Marie lives. I will need your input and ideas continuously because I’ve never toured with a band, been apart of a political scandal or have limited experiences in rural Washington.

In a larger context, Marie is your Every Knitter. She is you and me and everyone else we know rolled into one. She will have adventures, trials and tribulations and more importantly a lot of WIPs.

Sign ups for this new club are starting now and the club will ship out it’s first orders the first or second week of September. The continuing members of the Rock Your Socks Off club as it stands will continue to get their club offerings as normal through the duration of their membership and then they will be able to pick their own club as well if they wish to continue. I will no longer be taking RYSO members as they currently stand, but the RYSO theme is still represented in this new club incarnation and should you want to join simply choose the ‘music’ theme option and then your other choices as appropriate.

Think of this as a club buffet, you are able to literally make your own plate and pick and choose which aspects of the club you want to have. This will allow you to choose your own price point, level of involvement and over arching theme. This new club also introduces the options of two new types of clubs; lace and fiber. In the fall there may be an option for other weights (dk, worsted, etc.) but I will have to order stock for that first before I can offer it. You can now also choose whether you prefer striping or semi-solid colorways for your lace/sock yarns. This is great if you are a sock knitter who likes to do patterns that don’t jive with stripes or if you’re the kind of knitter that likes the yarn to do the talking and you prefer stockinette knitting.

The order form is pretty self explanatory I hope, but if you have any questions about how to fill it out please feel free to email me at daniella@danido.com and I will do my best to explain. Briefly though here is a quick and dirty instruction guideline.

1) download the Excel spreadsheet located as a link at the bottom of the Choose Your Own Adventure Club page
2) Place an ‘X’ in the box next to the theme of your choosing

3) Place the monetary amount of the ‘Base Options’ in the box next to the one you want. (e.g. “Knife Fights and Lace without Lifelines > Sock Yarn > $90 means you will put “90” in the box.)

4) Follow the same instructions for any of the ‘Subplot’ options by choosing the monetary value that corresponds to what you want and for how many months. (e.g “Add Goodies”>2 months, put 6 in the box next to that option.)

5) Check the box to indicate if you want to receive your 3 month membership over 6 months (shipments every other month) and type in “SS” or “Stripes” to indicate the type of color ways you’d like to receive.

6) At the bottom of the form you should see a ‘Total’ box, it should automatically tally up your choices and give you the total for your specific club. It is very important to double check to make sure this is the correct total however because this is the amount you will be billed for. If there is an error in your total please email me your form with everything still filled in and let me know there is an error in the total and I will adjust it for you.

The first installment of the Marie Cashmere Chronicles should appear sometime in the next month and will begin our adventure by explaining a little of her back story before we get into her actual adventures.

Please help spread the word for this new club by telling your friends about it. There are lots of options so this should be the club for just about anyone! Shipping is included in the prices given for the U.S, Canada and the U.K., if you live somewhere other than these states please let me know and I will figure out shipping for you.

I HAD THE BEST IDEA EVER IN THE SHOWER TODAY! I’m still working the kinks out but be prepared for a brand new super fantastic fully customizable yarn/fiber club experience. For right now however I have deactivated the Rock Your Socks Off memberships listings in my ArtFire Shop and my Etsy Shop and will be dismantling the Buy Now button on the RYSO sub page on this blog. I know it’s kind of sudden and if you are a current member worry not, your memberships will continue on as expected for the duration of your membership. At the end of your membership you will be given the option to join this new incarnation of the club at a discounted price or to continue your current membership as is. (also at a discount, of course.)

I am really excited about this new concept and I think it will open up the club to a whole bunch of different people and allow a lot more people to join, interact and participate on various levels as they can afford or wish to. I’m absolutely certain I’m not the only person who has had this particular idea, but I’m still pretty excited about it and hope it works out. I really love the idea of yarn and fiber clubs and like the idea of making it specific to the member in a way that allows them to feel like they have a part in what is going to be showing up at their door every month.

Ok, this is two blog posts in one day so I will keep this brief but the MINUTE I am sure I have this concept down and making decent sense I will be posting a link to the information page. Keep checking back and if you want literal play by play updates on the whole thing; check out my twitter @danidocrafty.

I’ve recently gotten some feedback on the Rock Your Socks Off club that have put some ideas in my head for ways to make it better, more streamlined and hopefully more appealing to you, the customer.

First of all, the name. I love the ‘Rock Your Socks Off’ name because it’s a phrase I’ve said for years, however several people have brought it to my attention that it may just be too close to the ‘Socks that Rock’ club that Blue Moon Fibers does and this may be causing some confusion for people unfamiliar with DaniDo Crafty (which is probably a lot of people since I’m a new dyer.) Blue Moon Fibers and the Socks that Rock club are very well known and it’s an awesome club, I don’t want to be their competition (because I’m not. At all.) so I’d like to set this club apart a little bit so there is no confusion between the two. I am not trying to be Blue Moon Fibers and our clubs are very different.

So, I put it to you my loyal readers: should we change the name and if so, what should we change it to?

Secondly: pricing vs. what you get. I’ve got mixed reviews here. For the extras that you get plus including shipping I think the price is fair however in this economy I may be wrong and there may be a need to re-evaluate. I had planned to up the price in August to the initial price that I had figured out before I started the club based on my costs, the average cost of the extras that I send, etc. I want to stay competitive though and more importantly I want this club to be a success and for my members to be happy.

So here’s what I’m considering:

1) I’m not raising the price in August. I don’t think in the present economy I can justify hiking the price of the club at this juncture. I will revisit the price raise in another 6 months or so depending on the popularity of the club and whether I am able to offer more (like luxury fibers, better patterns, etc.) to justify the raise in price.

2) Potentially offering two different clubs, one being yarn only without the goodies and the second being the current one with the goodies.  This would allow people to decide if they just want the yarn, or if they want the whole package. Obviously, the ‘yarn only’ club would cost less and may get more people interested in the club.

3) Changing the 3 month club offering to be spread out over 6 months, so that you would get a new sock yarn every other month. I think part of the problem right now is that people just don’t knit a pair of socks a month. Unless you’re super knitter who can churn out a pair in a few days, I think sending the yarn every other month would do a few things: leave time to actually knit up the yarn you already have and also allow me to potentially come up with patterns for the yarns as well and to focus on making the yarns and color ways very specific and extraordinary.

4) I will be getting rid of the one month membership, I feel it dilutes the specialness of membership.

5) I will continue to offer memberships on an open basis, meaning you can sign up at any time. This may change if the club gets bigger, but right now I am able to add new members continuously.

If you have any other suggestions or ideas on how to make this club a success for everyone involved I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m still very new to the sock club concept and am sort of feeling my way around here. I hope that the current members are enjoying their memberships and that it’s been worth the investment to them. I will continue to offer a discount for continuing members who are renewing their membership because I like the idea of rewarding loyalty.

My whole initial concept for this club was to be sort of inclusive and open ended to allow the members to dictate how they’d like things to be run. I still like that idea and would love to hear from current or past members on how they feel the last 5 months have gone.

To those of you who are not current members, would any of the above ideas entice you to join? What do you look for in a sock club? As of right this second none of the major changes will take place for existing memberships.

It’s been a long, tiring week of sick sick puppy. I’ve not done a very good job of updating the world on the goings ons (unless you follow my twitter and/or plurks) but she’s still not entirely well. We think she has a urinary tract infection now. Any idea how hard it is to illicit a urine sample from a Schnauzer? Not easy, I’ll tell ya that.

There’s been knitting, and even a little spinning and dying. There has also been sewing. There has also been semi-permanent house guests, creeping bouts of insomnia and ongoing panic attacks about going to ‘real’ college in the Fall.

Because of all these things: I got nothin’. There should be pictures of freshly carded fiber (which you can see in my ArtFire shop), sewing projects, freshly dyed yarn, last months sock club offering + a video message from me which I didn’t get a chance to do in May either thanks to graduation. Essentially, I fail at being DaniDo Crafty lately.

I will redeem myself, I promise. As soon as my pup is all better and panic attacks and such start to wane there will be much picture taking, video recording, blogging and most importantly another contest. I’m trying to come up with a really good one for this coming month. If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to share. My poor exhausted brain could use the help.

Also, remember that this is the last month that the Rock Your Socks Off club memberships will be at the introductory price of $95 for three months, starting in August it’ll go to $115. Shipping is still included in domestic shipments and I’ve got some great ‘goodies’ lined up for the coming months. If you get in at the $95 price before August 1st however, that will ALWAYS be the price you pay, for as long as you remain in the club. Your price will never go up.

Allie Mae is home! It has been a long, hard, sad week here at Casa Dani Do, we were missing our little love puppy and our other pup, Dixie Lee was so sad without her sister around. Oh, and then the cat decided to take this opportunity to lose her ever loving mind and try out new vocal aerobics at 6 a.m. (She does this ridiculous yodeling thing in the main part of the house where the acoustics are fantastic and her voice just carries to every inch of the house.) Allie had been at the vets since early Tuesday morning. She has been on IV fluids and medication to get rid of the abscess in her neck and to help heal irritation in her intestines that was causing bleeding.  Today she started eating solid food again and has perked up considerably from the last time we saw her on Monday. We were able to bring her home because she could come off the IV. She’s still weak and obviously not 100%, but she looks so much better and she’s eating, and going potty and she even sat and danced (it’s a little trick I taught the girls) for a treat tonight, so she must be feeling a little better. The only thing that is worrisome is that she lost over a pound from last Saturday, and when you’re only 15 lbs of dog, a whole pound is a lot in less than a week. We have to keep an eye on her for the next few days to make sure she’s eating and drinking enough, which isn’t really a problem because no one has taken their eyes off her since she came home this afternoon.

In the midst of being just inconsolably upset about the whole Allie catastrophe I decided to take the plunge and start sewing. My  mother in law has a craft room full of very expensive Berinina machines that I have access to, but I chose to go the ‘cheap Brother machine’ route that was laying around and have tucked it into a corner of my bedroom so I can suck at this new hobby in private for awhile. However, since nothing is private on the internet I will share with you my few first projects here:

It’s ugly. It’s lopsided and I’m not really sure what it is exactly. I hate it. Right now it’s housing my digital camera because quiet frankly, waste not want not is my motto and the camera fit in it.

Still ugly, but a little better. This one is an iPod cozy with an icord loop for a closure. Not too bad but still pretty ugly.

Then I bought a pattern. I bought the Small Satchel pattern from KeyKalou’s shop. I love her bag designs and when I have a bit more scratch I’ll probably buy a few more of her patterns. So, I bought the pattern and then went to the Goodwill down the road from my work and picked up some bed sheets to use as fabric.

And I have a little bag! This one I’m actually pretty proud of! There are darts, and a lining and a pocket and straps and magnetic snaps! All kinds of new and interesting things I learned while making it. It’s not perfect and I plan on doing it again and making a few changes; namely I either need to use a heavier weight fabric or fuse interfacing on both the outer shell and inner shell (pattern only calls for outer shell). The pattern does mention an invisible lining, which I’m not sure what that is, unless it’s just a muslin lining that sits in between the outer shell and the visible inner lining in the bag. In which case, I could do that as well, it wouldn’t be that much  more work and would definitely make the bag much sturdier. This little bag fits my credit card/business card case, cell phone, lip balm, keys and sunglasses. I used it while doing errands today and I like it for a purse made from bed sheets from Goodwill by a total n00b.

I think I’ll be making the Half-Moon Handbag next. I have more sheets.

The Sick Puppy Sale that I was running in my ArtFire shop is over for now because all of my wonderful customers cleaned me right out! There are still Rock Your Socks Off club listings available, custom sock color ways listings and a few random yarns and spinning batts, but I’ll need a few days to restock the shop with more yarn and fiber. Remember though if you’re thinking of getting a RYSO membership do it before August while it’s still the introductory price! I’ll also be debuting the batt club in August, more information on that will be available soon! Thank you to everyone for their well wishing, prayers and orders in the shop. You all have really helped get through this completely sucktacular week.

I and the various animals who live with me appreciate it. However if the cat doesn’t stop the break of dawn yodeling act, she’ll be for sale in my ArtFire shop too.

The Sick Puppy sale has only been going on since yesterday morning. I haven’t really promoted it in any major way, just word of mouth and asked my friends at Phat Fiber to help me out. My shop is nearly cleaned out. The response has been amazing and you guys have really helped make sure that I can continue to feed myself AND take care of my little dogs. Right now the shop is pretty bare because I’ve sold all of the carded fiber I had and several hanks of yarn as well. I will be carding more batts and hopefully dying more yarn this week to put up in the shop by this weekend. Fingers crossed.

PupWatch ‘09 Update: Allie went to our regular vet yesterday morning and he checked her out, reaffirmed what we already knew but took her off the anti inflammatory that the ER vet had put her on. It was fine for a few days, but is dangerous long term because it could damage her liver. She came home from the vet and seemed to be doing a little better, still tired and obviously in pain, but her little ears would perk up every once in awhile and she was moving around a little more. We have been trying to ply her with any kind of food possible to get her to eat, she only eats a few bites at a time and then goes and lays back down. This was worrisome but we figured it was the antibiotics upsetting her stomach or it was still painful to chew/swallow. She was drinking plenty of water and eating a little bit.

This morning however we had to take her back to the vet. She had blood in her mouth and was spitting up blood. We’re not sure where the blood is coming from but we think she may have ruptured her abscess. She’s at the vet right now with my mother in law (while I’m laying in bed with Dixie Lee who is not handling her sister being sick very well at all.) we’re waiting to hear back from the vet. UPDATE: Allie has to stay at the vet overnight. Her abscess isn’t ruptured, but she is bleeding internally. We need to figure out why and where. We think it may be the medication she was on that irritated her stomach lining or bowels but we won’t know for sure until some tests come back.

We’re all on pins and needles trying to figure out what is wrong with our baby girl. The outpouring of love and well wishing has been incredible and I want to thank everyone who has kept Allie in their thoughts and send their good wishes. It’s terrible having a sick animal, they can’t tell you what hurts or how bad.

Again; thank you.

Hey, remember how the only rules for the Team Should be Committed team was that you couldn’t have a nervous break down during the tour? It’d day 2 and that’s already a challenge. Now, in my defense I did end up with super sick pup yesterday and today. Poor Miss Allie Mae had to be taken to the emergency vet last night because she was in so much pain she couldn’t even put her little head down to rest. We thought it was her allergies, but when your baby is in that much pain there’s nothing to do but take her to a professional. We rushed her to the doctor, she wasn’t getting enough oxygen so they put her on oxygen. The doc thought there was something stuck in her throat. So, for the 2 hours that it took to get the xrays of the pups throat my boyfriend and I went through the list of every possible thing that the little dog could have swallowed.

Here’s how you know that a) you really love your dog and b) you knit too much. I described in tearful detail exactly what a stitch marker was to the confused veterinarian. I was absolutely certain that I had somehow done this to my much loved Allie Mae with my careless wrangling of stitch markers. I was completely prepared to come home and incinerate every single stitch marker in this house. Alternating between debilitating angst that I could have caused this horrible pain was the violent rage that in fact perhaps someone else may have done this to my baby dog. Oh, I worked my way down the list of people who live with me or even around me. I mean, literally, went down the list.

(Imagine all of this said through clenched teeth to Mike)

“So help me God, if your father dropped one of his stupid pills on the floor and the dog picked it up, we are kicking him out of the house.” (Keep in mind, it’s his house.)

“Oh my God, what if your mom dropped a pin in the sewing room? I’m going to have to kill her and bury her in the desert.”

“That asshat who lives next door must have thrown something over the fence trying to kill our dog. I’m burning his house down when we get home.”

After 2 hours of this we get the xrays back: nothing in her throat. Now, as upset as I was about the prospect of something being in her throat keeping her from being able to breathe; at least if that was the case the doc can pull it out and viola! she’s better. So, nope, no easy fix.

My poor adorable sweet little love puppy has an abscess on her neck; this abscess is causing so much inflammation that it was pressing on her airway which was causing the breathing trouble. So, 12 hours of oxygen overnight at the animal hospital and an IV drip of antibiotics and anti inflammatory, we have a very floppy Schnauzer who is tired, sore and not very happy.

I mean seriously. Saddest Schnauzer EVER.  She’s home now though and that’s what matters. Her sister however was NOT happy that when we got home from the hospital last night, her sister was not with us. Last night was the firs time since they were conceived in their mothers belly that they have been separated for longer than just a handful of hours. So tomorrow we take Allie to our regular vet and see if the medication will solve the abscess situation or whether she’s going to need to have it surgically drained.

In honor (which is not the best way of putting it) of my poor sick puppy, I’m having another sale in my ArtFire shop. Everything is 15% off because well, quite frankly, these vet bills are stacking up and I’m a broke college kid. So, the Sick Puppy Sale will go on for an undetermined amount of time: either until I run out of stuff in my shop or until people stop buying things. The sale is good on everything, as usual, including sock club memberships, custom colorways and the limited edition Concrete Blonde Rock Your Socks Off yarn. The prices are already marked down so there’s nothing to refund, just buy and enjoy!

Other quick things to toss in here: I snagged a treasury on Etsy today which is full of some beautiful fiber related items.

Also, some Tour de Fleece updates.

Spun yesterday:

   Top picture: roughly fingering weight merino/bfl/angelina bottom picture: roughly fingering weight Natch Woolie Bon Bon’s. I belong to Natch Woolies Bon Bon club, I get a 6 back of these delicious super soft bon bon batts every month. I had 2 of these six packs hanging out so I decided to drum card them all together and spin a yarn from the big batt. It came out awesome! It’s not very much yarn, but since I have 10 more months of the club to look forward to, I’m going to leave what I have on the spindle as just add to it as I go.

More updates tomorrow on what was spun today!