Excuses for not Knitting

Yesterday was Jake's 4th birthday. Here he is eating his birthday treat, a greenie.

I don't think he knew it was his birthday, but he did like the extra treats!

Oh, I have to share my funny story about Jake. On Sunday, while out on our daily walk, he caught a squirrel! Now we chase the squirrels at every opportunity, but I didn't think he would ever catch one! I'm not sure who was more surprised - Jake or me.

Back to the story: Jake was concerned about the dogs barking at him two doors down (not wanting to share his booty), so we back tracked a few paces. All the while, Jake is carrying the squirrel in his mouth. The poor squirrel is squirming around trying to get out of Jake's grasp and squeaking up a storm. Once Jake was comfortable, he laid the squirrel down ever so gently. Well, the squirrel tried to make a dash for safety. Jake nimbly snatched the squirrel back up in his mouth. He then looked to me for some assistance (as if I was going to help him keep this squirrel as a play thing!). Getting none, he laid the squirrel back down. This time, I convinced Jake to let the squirrel run away (a quick command and no leash freedom did the trick). Afterwards, I called my husband to brag about Jake's hunting skills. He's a true blooded retriever after all. Truth be told, the squirrel was a little baby. I don't s/he had learned to be scared of dogs yet. Well, I am proud to say Jake nailed that lesson home!

So, I hate to blame Jake on why I didn't get a lot of knitting done yesterday.

I have another excuse!

Homemade sticky buns! My husband and I had them for breakfast this morning. They were a sticky, gooey mess, but oh, so good.

I did manage to find enough time to knit a gauge for the upcoming "Ode to Quilting" afghan. Being a habitually loose knitter, I always look at the guide on the back of the yarn label and subtract 2 sizes from the needle size they recommend. It almost always works. This time, I only went down one size in needles when knitting the gauge of Lion Brand's Lion Wool (mainly because I wanted to use my favorite needles). I am stunned and shocked that my gauge is a bit too tight and that I need to knit the wool using the EXACT same size of needles that Lion Brand recommended. This has never happened to me. Either my knitting has altered over the year or Lion Brand finally has a knitter who knits like me. I'm going to assume the latter.

I also finished seaming the left sleeve to the body of the striped sweater. I'm afraid it looks about the same, just minus the safety pins, so I refrained from taking yet another pic of it.

The business cards were finished yesterday morning. I picked them up in the afternoon. Thankfully, it was only a light rain that I got caught in while I was out picking them up. (My main form of transportation is my trusty, Gary Fisher bicycle). Check them out.

They were done by my local print shop, McKinney's Design & Print. I think they did a great job.

Well, that's all for now. I am off to knit more (I'll be better today, I swear!).

Happy Knitting!