Little Brown Setbacks

The cute little doggie chewed off the imperfectly sewn-on buttons from J'meer's baby sweater. They were wooden turtles. The dog decided that they were a threat to the continued existence of the universe and had to be destroyed. She did so efficiently. She is such a good protector. Usually it is the cats who recognize such threats, often veiled in the guise of African Violet plants.

Earlier this week, the dog took out my project for my One-Skein Secret Pal to examine it in greater detail. She took the thing off the needles. Now, I would understand if this were on yummy wooden or bamboo needles. But it's not. It's on vintage green metal needles, the kind that are going shiny at the points and are going to get all scuffed at the shoulder. I bought a set on Ebay to give me a good range of needle sizes to choose from.

This project is from the Mason-Dixon book and is made of linen. (Can you guess, now? Can you?) I find it to be rather difficult, as I cannot see the pattern that I'm supposed to be seeing. I can't even tell how many repeats happen across the project. The Ann & Kay suggest that you mark the borders, but I might do better marking every square.

The dog removed it from its metal needles, which I thought were safe, and chewed up the counter I was using on it. Now, I knew that it was not the best counter for the project. It was one designed to hang off circular needles and was too big for these straights. But still. Why destroy an innocent row counter? I think that I counted correctly. I know I picked up the stitches correctly, eventually. I suppose I'm in the mid-stage of the project, where I hate it, I don't understand it, I doubt my ability to produce it successfully, and wonder why I ever chose this thing. I worked several more rows on Saturday night while sitting on the Zoo lawn, waiting to hear Pink Martini.

A nice young knitter sat next to me. Young, I say. Ha! She was undoubtedly old enough to order her own liquor. She expressed the opinion that she always trusted knitters-see, she is young-and told me about her green beret knitting project. She's having some trouble with tension and tight stitches. She and her girlfriend had the coolest little chairs I've seen in a long time. Not that Dr. Parts and I could rise from such chairs gracefully in public. I was the only one I saw knitting on the lawn, but I did not wander around that much, to spare my feet.

So, now I have to re-acquire buttons for J'meers sweater, and, since I can't find the ones I recall buying, for Audrey's. Darn. I thought plastics were a greater threat to the continued existence of the universe, but they may be safer from the little brown doggy.