Purple Toupee and Gold Lame

Thanks for all of the well-wishes for Frieda. She seems more or less back to normal (see above), though she's still taking medication and is on a special bland diet. We're keeping a close eye on her, because she's sneaky. Not as sneaky as Gretel, but still pretty sneaky.

I feel like I'm still hopelessly behind on pretty much everything, but I'm trying to prioritize a little and not get much crazier. I finished the purple fingerless gloves earlier today, and will get them in the mail to Austria on Monday. The pattern is available here on Ravelry, and it's a good pattern. I really like the twisted rib on the palms, and the shaping of the thumb gusset. I shortened the wrist in an attempt to squeeze these out of a single skein of Alpaca Silk, and came up 2 grams short. Very annoying--cables are such a yarn-hog! There's still enough of the second skein to make a pair of lacy mitts, so it won't go to waste.

I didn't start a single new project last weekend, but there are a couple of other Christmas gifts that I should probably start on this weekend if there's any hope of finishing them up in time. Hmmm. We'll see--this could just be a Christmas card avoidance tactic. I keep reminding myself that none of this is mandatory . . . .

Ugh.

I'm not going to sugar-coat it--it's been a pretty terrible week. Frieda had an attack of pancreatitis, which meant a middle of the night trip to the animal emergency room, followed by two and a half days at the regular vet hospital. $1,200 later, she's doing pretty well, but we're watching her like a hawk and feeding her a special diet. Add to that the threat that this could happen again if she gets her paws on rawhide, or fatty human food, or any number of things that we don't think she has access to (but you never know, with a dachshund), and it's been very upsetting. My understanding is that pancreatitis is manageable through diet, but I'm still really worried about Frieda. This has basically killed my holiday spirit, while simultaneously eating up a ton of time that I should have spent on gifts, cards, or work-work. And the $$. Oh, the $$. Ugh--it's totally worth it, but it's definitely going to have an impact on more than a few things that I've been planning for early 2009, like reducing my debt level and saving for another trip to Europe.

I did finish the fingerless glove (Rav Link) above this week, which is half of a pair that should have gone in the mail on Monday. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make it, since I have only finished about 4 rows of the second glove. The yarn is Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk. I've shortened the wrist-end of this a little in hopes of getting two gloves out of one skein, but I don't think I quite made it. I do have a second skein, so there should be plenty of yarn--and I may be able to get another pair of these out of the remainder. I like the cables on this pattern, but my favorite part is the twisted rib on the palm--it keeps them from being baggy, and the texture looks very cool.

Time to get back to my endless to-do list--at least I can check off "blog post" off of today's list!