Fare thee well, Missy

Well, Missy and Lulu are together again at last. We said goodbye to Missy yesterday, a cold and blustery day, just the sort of day for a funeral. I was really heartsick to think of her in the cold wet ground last night... Lulu is growing an orange tree and we got a mandarin tree for Missy.

Tell you what though, Lulu won't be able to recognise Missy beyond the Rainbow Bridge! She will be young again, and oh-so-sprightly. They will run the fields together until we join them.

At almost 15, Missy has been living on borrowed time. She was blind, half-deaf and skinny beyond greyhound skinny! She eats so much but just can't put the weight on. Well for the past few weeks she has been having trouble getting out of her beanbag, even to go to the toilet. It was sad to put her to sleep but not the same sort of sadness as with Lulu --- I know she's had a good life and I'm just lucky I got to spend some of it with her.

Here is a pic of them together in happier times...

A Pet's Prayer

If it be I grow frail and weak
And pain should wake me from my sleep,
Then you must do what must be done,
For this last battle can't be won.

You will be sad I understand
Don't let your grief then stay your hand.
For this day, more than all the rest,
Your love and friendship stand the test,
We've had so many happy years,
What is to come will hold no fears,
You'd not want me to suffer... so
When the time comes,
Please let me go.

Take me where all my needs they'll tend,
But stay with me until the end.
And hold me firm and speak to me
Until my eyes no longer see.

I know in time you too will see,
It is kindness you do to me.
Although my tail its last has waved,
From pain and suffering I've been saved.

Do not grieve that it should be you
Who must decide this thing to do
We've been so close, we two, these years,
Don't let your heart hold any tears.

Smile, for we walked together for a little while

(From Pocket Inspirations)

Ravelry, finally

I know what I'll be doing for the next few days :)

(my username is JollyJumbuck)

I just want to knit

I am so itching to step away from the keyboard and knit knit knit! Here are the projects calling my name at the moment:

• Knitting Needle Knitting Bag -- in a grape purple (cheapo Spotlight 8ply wool, 2 strands), with bamboo knitting needles and a gorgeous Russian Doll fabric in lilac/pink for the lining. The berry stitch is beautiful front and back.
• Cabled socks (my pattern) for Roy in TOFUtsies 722 Stand on Your Own Two Feet -- for summer.
  
• Hedera for moi in TOFUtsies 784 "A Walk in the Park" -- blimey it's limey! I chose Hedera because the pattern is very similar to "Gull Wings" from Socks Socks Socks that I made years ago, nostalgic knitting!
• A lace sweater for my mum in (yuck) Zhivago. The pattern is beautiful (from Creative Knitting mag) but I'm hating the yarn. Should I persevere or give up and make her a lace shawl instead? We'll see.
• Rainy Day Socks for Matilda to match mine (I used two strands TOFUtsies for mine, will use one strand for M's in leftover yarn)

Anyway, whine over. Back to work.

Monday's the day

Well I set myself a deadline of Monday to open up the doors to my new store --- it definitely won't be all done by then (too much stuff, and I'm too much of a Virgo so each listing gets tweaked a few times, times that by the number of listings and well you get the idea!). Anyway, I'll go with what I have and keep on adding stuff as I go. At least it'll be open. I've put a little ad in YARN magazine so it has to be open! Haven't managed to get my hands on the Oct issue yet so it's nervous anticipation.

I've had a ton of fun trying to pick the Fleece Artist/Hand Maiden order, OMG it all looks so good! The sock yarns I've settled on are:

Merino -- 100% Superwash Merino
Sea Wool -- 70% Merino, 30% Seacell
Somoko -- 65% Merino wool, 20% Kid, 10% Nylon, 5% Silk
Casbah -- 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon
and for soakers:
Minerva -- 100% BFL, DK (22st/4")
Athena -- 100% BFL, Aran (16st/4")
Bertha -- 100% BFL, "Big Blue" Bulky (12st/4")

The samples I have are simply lush!! I can't wait to nab a skein of Casbah for myself (indulgence to the max) and Sea Wool for a pair of summer socks for my mum who's moving to Arizona soon. Pretty chuffed with landing this supplier, there's only one other FA/HM stockist in Australia -- and they are stocking totally different yarns to the ones I have picked.

I knew that knitting one pair of socks a week in the cold winters of Central Oregon would lead to something one day! LMAO

Jolly Jumbuck will be focusing on yarns for socks, soakers, and something else :) You pick the something else's!

I need to nail down the colourways for the sock yarns by the end of the weekend too! Arrrgh so very very hard. So the store will have yarns dyed by the FA/HM artisans, plus I am getting some in undyed for my colourways ;)

I'm changing the way yarn is sold; it will now be dyed to order. You choose the yarn and choose the colourway, so you end up with the yarn that is just right for you! I hope to dye every Friday, limited slots available. There will still be instock yarns for those who don't wanna wait ;)

Alright, back to work!

xoxo

Come on Fleece Artist!!!

I'm going nuts waiting on the Fleece Artist BFL that was sent seamail instead of airmail due to bad communication on my part :(

At the moment I am BFL-less! (almost - just enough to cover Cuffed&Waisted orders).

In the meantime I'm about to place another order for some OMGTDF Fleece Artist sock yarns and will be adding a little bit of BFL to it, who knows when my ship will dock LOL!

On other news: I've closed down JJ@OzB for a couple of weeks while I focus focus focus on getting JJ.net up and running -- there's a bit of a deadline, the reason for this will be revealed in October ;)

I also have lots of backwards/catch-up blogging to do, where does the time go!