Skinny Dog « Fat Cat's Corner

September 7, 2011

Well Looky Here…

Filed under: Actual Spinning, Briar Rose, Knit Night, Random, SAFF, Skinny Dog, Southeastern Animal Fiber Fest, Spinning, ZPDK, zombie prom date knitters — Tags: Briar Rose Fibers, Randomness, Ravelry, SAFF, Southeastern Animal Fiber Fest, The Skinny Dog, zombie prom date knitters — Linda @ 5:31 am

It’s a Blog Post. Huh. Sorry it’s been a while. I’ve been posting a few things here and there on Facebook and Ravelry but nothing here because well, most of you are my FB Friends or Ravelry mates. And I guess I didn’t figure I had enough to make a whole post. Whatever that means.

Anyway we had a nice quiet Labor Day weekend here. With all the weekend wack jobs out on the lake and Tropical Storm Lee (which was supposed to dump 6 to 10 inches of rain on us, we got one) we didn’t make any big plans besides relaxing. We did a little cleaning and a little laundry and watched a whole lot of vintage Law & Order.

The kitten & the dog shared a pillow.

Tina n Sparkie Labor Day 2011

Monday Night Knit Night was canceled due to the holiday and the LYS, Piddlin’ Patch was closed. I decided to do some spinning.

I’ve had this 8oz of green/orange Zombie Slaying, Briar Rose Bluefaced Leicester Fiber (http://www.briarrosefibers.net/) for a little while now.

IMG_3162_medium2

It spun up very smooth. I’m not sure if I’m going to ply them together or find a complimentry color and ply it with that.

Briar Rose BFL

I have to do something with it and the other 4 bobbins of fiber I have sitting around. I’m down to one bobbin:) I’m going to SAFF http://www.saffsite.org/ next month and I know I’ll be buying more spinning fiber! I’ll need empty bobbins! LOL!

Comments (3)

August 4, 2011

I Won!

Filed under: Lake Keowee, Life, Skinny Dog — Tags: Lake Keowee, The Skinny Dog — Linda @ 6:03 am

OK. a year ago! I won a Gift Card over at Gizzards & Calf Fries (check out her awesome photos and if you’re on FB check out the 4 Paws Project. She does great work/photography for her local humane society) for an online store called CSN Stores. Honestly I had never heard of them so I perused the site to see what I could find. I had a few things in mind but couldn’t find just what I was looking for.

Living on the Lake like we do we spend a lot of time in the water. After work and on weekends we can usually be found in our Sling/Noodle chairs with the neighbors floating, chatting and drinking.

Which is great until the dog joins us. See, she really likes to be with her People.

Sparkie Collage

O.K. She really likes to be with ME. Which is only a problem when she wants to be in my lap! She’s only 35 pounds but those nails are sharp and her feet leave bruises. And then it hit me. Sparkie needs her own float! Something that keeps her out of the water (mostly) and won’t puncture. That’s when I found this…

TRC-Recreation-LP-Sunray-Pool-Float-in-Blue

(the float, not the girl) (although I wish I could say that was me but um, no) on the CSN.com website. It’s perfect for Sparkie and she loves it! She walks right off the dock onto it,

Desktop2

Sparkies new float

stands or lays down and just enjoys being part of the gang.

Comments (2)

April 24, 2011

Sunday in the Sunshine

Filed under: Life, Skinny Dog, South Carolina — Linda @ 8:30 am

Comments (3)

December 6, 2010

Peace on Earth

Filed under: Life, Skinny Dog — Tags: Family — Linda @ 5:00 am

Sparkie and Bartina sharing the fireplace. What you don’t know is that Sparkie is a fireplace hound. The minute we turn it on she is practically on top of the glass soaking up every BTU of heat. Eventually she gets too hot and starts panting. Just before she catches fire herself she will move away. That’s when Bartina makes her move.

When Sparkie cools off and comes back to find her primo spot taken. Sparkie tries to get in-between Tina and the fire. Round and round she walks stepping over and around little Tina until I finally take pity on her and place something on the floor for her to lay on.

FireplaceDance It’s a very delicate dance. Look at the expression on Sparkie’s face! She is so perplexed and the kitten is so unmoved! I’ll have to try and get the whole thing on video.

The kitten doesn’t stay very long and soon Sparkie has her spot all to herself again.

And then all is right again in Sparkie’s world.

Comments (2)

November 8, 2010

Nothin’

Filed under: Actual Crochet, Skinny Dog — Tags: Actual Crochet, zombie prom date knitters — Linda @ 10:42 am

Not much going on since the Zombie Prom Date Knitters left. Let me dig deep and see what I can scrounge up.

I completed the group project my Local Knit Group has been working on. They each knit up two 12″ squares and I crocheted them together using the Flat Braid Technique.

Flat_Braid_Join_medium2

1066799992_wvr3c-M-1

The blanket is a gift to our LYS owners as a thank you for letting us meet there after hours. Sara & Ray are awesome people and we just love meeting at their shop, The Piddlin’ Patch.

Tonight at Knit Night I’ll be starting a new knitting project using a new (to me) technique called Magic Loop. It uses a long (40″) circular needles instead of DPN’s for knitting in the round. I can’t talk & knit at the same time so I figured Magic Loop would be oh so much easier than knitting with FIVE double pointed needles.

It’s getting colder here and we’ve turned on the gas fireplace in the livingroom. Sparkie has taken up residence in front of it as usual.

Fireplace Dog1

And little Tina has taken to snuggling…

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I’ve been spinning with “Fanty” in fits and starts.

Test spin1

I need to find a spinning group here for pointers and instruction. I’m spinning but I could use some pointers. Seems like I’m over twisting but I’m still new to the wheel. I’ll finish spinning the Cooperworth wool they gave me with the wheel and see how I improve. Speaking of the Cooperworth wool, I’m really NOT liking it. Too much veggie matter and it doesn’t seem to be combed well. Lots of bumps instead of smooth. Maybe I’m just spoiled by the awesome Alpaca I got from Wonder Why Gal’s Etsy shop!

What have YOU been up to lately? Working on any projects?

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November 23, 2009

Shhh! I’m counting…

Filed under: Actual Crochet, Ever Loving Patient Husband, Skinny Dog — Tags: Actual Crochet, Ever Loving Patient Husband, Ravelry — Linda @ 5:41 am

Photo courtesy of Tahki Stacy Charles Crochet, 2007 2d Edition Pamphlet

Sometimes getting into a groove on a project is a problem. I’ve been wanting to make the Lacy Top Cardigan (designed by Doris Chan. PDF pattern is available for free download on Ravelry.com ) for my SIL ever since we saw the pattern while shopping together in 2007. Yes, two years. Well I’ve started on it. Really. And it’s an easy pattern too. But it does require a certain amount of concentration which means I can’t take it to Knit Night (yes I know this sweater is not knit and most of you know I don’t knit but Knit Night just rolls off the tongue nicer and besides I’m the only Crocheter there so my vote doesn’t go far in the name game) because we talk too much to keep count and I end up frogging most of what I do and that leaves me pretty much where I started before I even got there (DEEP INHALE!). My that was a long run on sentence!

Most other nights my problem is the ELPH. Don’t get me wrong! He is the most awesome, Ever Loving, Patient Husband there is and I don’t know what I did to deserve him but, the ‘kids’ have him under their little paws.

I usually get home before ELPH. In his awesomeness he doesn’t expect me to be wearing nothing but an apron and have dinner on the table when he arrives home but he does kinda like for me to have some idea of what I’m going to microwave (and when) or have something in mind that HE can cook for us. After dinner, about the time I get all settled in on the sofa with my yarn & pattern & glass of wine, the dog needs to go out. ‘Fine! Lets get this

over with! ‘ And out we go. Now Sparkie and I can scarcely go outside with out Jaspurr in tow. Sparkie sniffs around and does her thing, Jaspurr wanders off and then Spark & I head back to the house.

I get all settled in again when Jaspurr jumps up on the back of the front porch bench, looks in the window and proceeds to SCRATCH HIS NAILS ON THE GLASS to be let in! Now the ELPH & I will take turns letting the little PITAC (Pain In The Ass Cat) in and out but here’s my little secret. When ELPH is not home? That PITAC goes out after dinner and stays out until it’s darned convenient (like at the end of a row or a commercial) for me to get up & let his little ass in! Same goes for the dog. No matter how many times she ‘dolphins’ me with her nose!

Sweet_Guy_Scarf_medium So, when I can’t work on my SIL’s beautiful cardigan I make fast, easy things. Like the Sweetest Guy Scarf. (Also availabe for free at Ravelry.com) We all know a sweet guy don’t we? Go! Make him this scarf in his favorite NFL team colors. You can find that list over on Holly’s blog Knit with Snot for You . Go! She put a lot of work into that list, the least you can do is use it! Besides that she’s a RIOT!

Breezy Hat

I also made the Breezy Hat designed by Linda Permann (pattern currently only available the Summer 2009 edition of Interweave Crochet )

It was a fast project and easy to transport and I used left over yarn from the Secret Project. I’ll probably make some more in solids and Clemson colors.

So if you don’t see anything new here you can find me sitting on the sofa trying to count.

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December 8, 2008

Hi! My name is….

Filed under: Skinny Dog — Linda @ 5:57 am

Jaspurr

Well, my new Mommy took all the names that everyone suggested and went out on the back porch and hollered each one out several times. Yes. She did. It was quite embarrassing. Several of the neighbors came out and yelled back at her. But when she called my name, I came a runnin! Miss Sophia has it right. I am quite sophisticated and I purr all the time.

That skinny dog doesn’t intimidate me in the least.

And the Fat Cat? Well, I’m so damn cute even she’s starting to warm up to me! Look how close she let me get today!

Thank you all for helping my Mommy find my name!

Comments (13)

September 30, 2008

My View lately…

Filed under: Good Friends, Lake Keowee, Skinny Dog — Linda @ 12:22 pm

You might have noticed my Ever Patient & Loving Husband and I live on a lake.

It’s a very pretty lake,

very clean

and clear.

We enjoy it as often as we can.

“What?!?” you say, “Every chance you can?” Yes, you see, we still have our jobs to go to, laundry to do, a lawn to mow (yes I do that. Why? because frankly, I do a better job than my Ever Patient and Loving Husband), mulch to spread, groceries to buy, meals to cook (OK, so the extent of my cooking involves opening a box and pressing 3,0,0 start) garments to crochet and blogs to write. But when that’s all done (or we say the hell with that it’s too pretty, lets get out on the lake), we do enjoy the lake.

We have great neighbors and good friends we often get together out on the lake.

When we see them (or visa-versa) out floating in noodle chairs we grab a drink (alcholic of course. Hello!) (Did you know the Big-T Tervis Tumbler will hold HALF a bottle of wine?) and head out as well. It turns into small floating, drinking, sunburning, party.

Last year good friends and neighbors L&D purchased kayaks. We’d often see them floating out in the cove just talking about their day and generally winding down. It looked like a great way to end the day. A few weeks ago good friends and neighbors B&J bought kayaks too. Well! I won’t be left out like this! So the E.P. & L. Hubby & I bought a pair too.

This is my view of the lake now…

It really is very relaxing and especially fun when our Friends join us.

This is J & B.

They’ve been living near Hollywood for the last 20+ years.

This is L with her teacup poodle Simba. Simba is 14, nearly blind and mostly deaf. We love her.

That’s DW. Did I mention we drink while kayking?

I did?
Good.
Just checking.

It really is a great way to wind down at the end of the day.

O.K. Fine! It’s just another excuse to get together with our Friends and drink! O.K.?

Like we need an excuse.

Comments (6)

July 27, 2008

A Fat Cat and A Skinny Dog

Filed under: Fat Cat, Skinny Dog — Linda @ 11:21 am

I know this is called Fat Cat Crochet but most Fat Cat’s are well, fat and lazy. Pipurr is no exception. And being a Cat she is generally uncooperative where cameras are concerned. And well, she’s boring. She does this….

and a lot of this….

and this.

So when I saw came across a web sitefor a Canine Heritage Breed Test, I thought what the heck. The DH and I love our mutt dearly but always wondered just “what” she might be. She runs like a Greyhound, chases anything that runs, happily jumps into the lake and doesn’t know the meaning of the word “fetch”. Out of basic curiosity I bought the test. The cheek swab tests for over a 100 breeds. The results are divided into 3 catagories.

Primary – contains a majority of a specific breed (50% or greater). Most mixed breed dogs will not usually have a breed in this category unless one or both of their parents are purebred.

The Secondary – category reports breeds that are easily recognizable within your dog. While these breeds may have a strong influence on your pet, each breed listed makes up less than the majority of your dog’s DNA.

In the Mix – This final category identifies breeds that have the least amount of influence on your pet’s composition, however, they still appear, at a low and measurable amount, in your pet’s DNA.

So what do you get when you combine an
English Coonhound,

a Dachshund,

a Collie and

a Shetland Sheepdog?

Apparently that’s what they tell us our Sparkie girl is. We just call her our

100% Pure Bred, American Mixed Breed, of the South Carolina Variety !

But the description of English Coonhound does seem to fit her best: renowned for speed and endurance, has a strong but racy body, a deep chest, and well-defined musculature. A balanced, powerful dog with no exaggerated parts, it possesses the grace and attitude of a well-conditioned athlete. In general an English Coonhound denotes a tall and leggy animal, thinly boned and built for the chase.

That’s all true of my Sparkie. If it moves she’ll chase it; squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, ducks, butterflies, frogs, beetles. No catching has ever been done, just treeing. Well, the frogs and beetles get caught and sometimes eaten.

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