Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Today I am wearing a dog mask (shocker!) It is basically a headband with a nose piece that drops down. It is all covered with fur and I have big floppy ears. For some reason, whenever anyone walks in the office they start laughing. I have also been told that it is hard to talk to me and keep a straight face. My boss is fighting the urge to scratch my ears. As long as nobody tries to give me a belly rub we should avoid any sexual harassment issues. But don't worry - my bark is worse than my bite!

I hope everyone enjoys a safe and fun Halloween tonight. I'll be handing out dum dums and dog bones (for the furry trick or treaters).

Warm Paws

Here is a knitting pattern I kind of created. The back story is a gentleman here in town needed some slipper socks for his wife. Mr. P had purchased a pair of slippers off the internet but they were only available during the Christmas holidays and as it was July they were unavailable. Mrs. P has had several strokes and shuffles her feet when she walks. These slippers do not slide off her feet or twist around her foot. All I had to go from was a couple of color photographs of the slippers. This is what I came up with. They are very easy to knit. But, having made four pairs I am rather sick of doing ribbing. To anyone out there reading this, please feel free to post any questions you might have in the comments and I'll try to answer them in a later post. I used Red Heart yarn on these, both the worsted and sport weight, and it worked perfectly.

Shirley's Slipper Socks Knitting Pattern*












Worsted or Sport Weight yarn
Size 6 knitting needles
Yarn needle

Will fit a size 8-9 women’s foot.

Cast on 25 stitches
Work in Rib (k1, p) stitch until band is 26 inches long.
Bind Off

Fold strip as follows and clip edges together:

Top of foot from cuff to toe: 11 ½”
Toe to heel: 8 ½”
Match short edges (cuff) and fold for the heel accordingly.

Sew the long side seams together.
I start at the cuff and stitch down, then I draw the yarn across the toe 3 times to cinch it together (this keeps the slipper from twisting), then stitch back up the other side.

Sew the short heel seams together. I draw the yarn across the heel the same as the toe to keep it from spreading and it makes it fit better.

Fold down the cuff 1” and then loosely stitch around.

Repeat for the second slipper sock.


Please respect my pattern and don't use this to make a profit of any kind. You may however make a copy for personal use, or to hand out for free to a class.

*On November 18, 2007 Shirley passed away - I have renamed this pattern in honor of the woman they were knit for.

Rip Van Winkle

The scrapbooking day was a great success. I managed to finish Volume 1 of the Alena baby book and start on brother Dave's book. By the time I got home early Sunday morning and made it into bed it was close to 1am (way past this little girl's bedtime). The dogs woke me up early because it was time for their breakfast.

Speaking of dogs:

Here is Lucie - the new baby. We adopted her from the animal shelter here in Casper. She is a lab/pit mix, but we think there is some hound in her as well. She is currently close to 9 months old and full of energy. Pershing, is the older dog. At 8 years he is the king of the castle. Persh is my baby and I've had him since he was a puppy. As a lab/chow mix he is very chowish and a one-woman dog. It is all about mommy. But, when he wants something, he wants something NOW. That is why I was woken up at 7 am to feed them breakfast, even though Ron was already awake. I guess I pour the kibble much better or something. Pershing is adjusting to having Lucie around. He does get grouchy with her, but who can blame him?

We normally do a big trip to the dog park on Saturdays but as I was scrapping all day they did not get to go play. They were giving me guilty looks on Sunday morning so we went then. There were not as many doggies out for Lucie to run around a play with. Pershing does not play - in fact he pretty much ignores all the other dogs there. He does like to try and chase a squirell now and again.


We slept for the rest of Sunday. I fell asleep during the Bears/Lions game and when I woke up I noticed that the VCR thought it was time to "fall-back" for the time change. I knew I slept for more than 15 minutes, but that is what the clock indicated. Of course, the TV time showed I slept for a lot longer (and I know it was early in the 2nd half when I conked out and late in the 3rd qtr when I woke up). There was a few minutes of confusion until I figured out what happened. I slept again during the Charger/Huston game as well. I feel like I missed a whole weekend.


I promise to show some knitting projects on this site soon. But, as it is late October I am mainly knitting Christmas presents and I don't really want to give away the surprise. It's hard to tell someone not to scroll down just yet. I did do some knitting last night and this morning before heading to work. I have completed a couple of knitted felting projects and I need to get some before photos taken before I start the felting process. Maybe I'll try to get some photos that show the projects, but not really so they don't give away the surprise. I'll have to think on that.

Not so Itsy Bitsy

So I am totally wigging out right now. This morning I had a run-in with a rather large spider and I am trying not to throw up my honey nut o's.

For those that don't know me, I normally wear my hair in a bun. As I was taking the dogs out for a final potty before leaving for work, I kind of felt something brush against my face. It felt bigger than the normal wisp of hair, but I looked around and didn't see anything on the floor. The dogs and I came back in the house, I got some final things together, and as I was in the foyer I felt something on my head and then drop to my shoulder. I looked down and there was this large, brown spider - about as large as a quarter. I opened the door and flicked it out into the bushes. As I am not a bug-person, I have no idea what type of spider this guy was. I really hope it was not a Western Recluse Spider. I just looked that up on the web and I can't quite remember if that is what attacked me. The site just kept going on about how they have 6 eyes in a horseshoe pattern as opposed to the 8 eyes that other spiders have. Yeah, like I took the time to count eyes.

I arrived at work and promptly took down the hair and shook it out. (Insert shudder here). I'm ok. I guess someone forgot to tell the spiders that Halloween is next week.

On a happier note, I am going to Croptoberfest tomorrow! Yes, in addition to the craziness of knitting and all things yarn, I also love to scrapbook. I have read some things out there where people think that these two hobbies don't mix and there are some knitters that really look down on scrappers. I might rant about that later. Ah, the anticipation.

My scrapping involves doing pages related to all of the projects I have knitted and wove (and other crafty things), there is a Girl Scout album, and of course tons of doggy pages. I am currently working on a album of all my baby pictures, and will be starting one for my brother, Dave. No, he does not get all of my baby pictures - but that would be kind of funny. I guess I should give him all of his baby pictures in an album, instead of in the envelopes where they are now (his original baby book kind of fell apart). Anywho, I will be spending 15 hours tomorrow just scrapping! It should be a blast.

Dog World View

Wow, welcome to my world of blogging. Guess I should join the 21st century some time.

This blog will more than likely cover my world in Casper, Wyoming with my boyfriend Ron and our two dogs - Pershing & Lucie. I am a fiber-a-holic and love to knit and read, and if I have time I spin and weave as well.

We just returned from a trip to Jackson, WY and Grand Teton National Park. Here is a photo from our trip - is the teton right side up or upside down?