Today, no talk of running, because if you want to hear about running, you should go to the exploding site Runagogo. Seriously, people, that site is a-freaking-mazing. Every time I go visit, which is ALL THE TIME, there are three or four more posts by members. There are ninety-nine posts in just a day! POSTS! And over a hundred comments! And the comments! So good! So encouraging!
I remain amazed by knitters. Always.
However. We’re talking about dogs again, because, you know, I rarely talk about knitting. So many of you are knitters, and yet you still come here? I’m not sure I know why, but I’m always ever grateful. Someday I’ll show you knitting.
I’ll even talk about it for a minute! Two socks at a time in the magic loop method! Dude! That magic loop is damn cool. However, as cool as two socks at the same time are, as fascinating and interesting as they may be, it’s not intuitive knitting and I like my socks to be totally brainless. Seriously, and this is truth, my regular toe-up on-two-circs socks I can knit completely in the dark excluding toes and heels. The rest, all by feel.
So suddenly having two balls of wool to deal with, or if you’re like me and started at work and didn’t have the means or motivation to ball a second amount of wool out of the Trekking XXL skein, and you are knitting with the outside strand for one sock and the inside for the other, then you’re effed when it comes to turning the needle around. Always messing with it, untangling, pulling.
I will gratefully finish two socks at the same time, bind them off, sew in the ends and relish in having, very suddenly, a pair. And I will never do it again.
The magic loop method, though, that’s rad.
OHMYGOSH! Look how you distracted me from telling you I never write about knitting! Nice job, you. Very tricky.
I was telling you dog stories! Boonie The Amazing Returner has endeared herself to the knit-world. And she’s done even more amazing things. I quote from Whosadele, who left this in my comments:
Rachael,
your story kept me going today. My dogs disappeared last night. At
11:00pm the gate was open and the dogs were gone without a trace. My
old, too old to be running around, Springer mix and our
one-year-old-on-Friday lab aussie mix. That girl has always been a
runner, the old boy will sit in the open gate and wait all day for
someone to come home and close it for him.
My husband went walking too
look for them, then went driving, then I went driving and calling their
names until 2:00am. Up before dawn this morning, I was thinking of your
wonderful Boonie story, I kept thinking: three days, three days, they
found her after three days. I stayed home from work. I remembered
someone called after seeing the posters, so I made posters, I waited
for a call, I looked out the window, I called shelters, I thought about
Boonie. I drove around more, I gave posters to every postman I saw,
stopped at the vet, went to the city shelter, the county shelter and I
cried. I ch
ecked every lump, branch, and garbage bag along the road, relieved that
none of the lumps was a dog.
I kept thinking of your story with a happy
ending, three days. I called the answering machine, there was a
message, “I have two dogs in my front yard with your phone number…”
Bobbie, as sweet a lady as could be, had seen them in her front yard
and decided they ought to be tied up and she called me. I can’t believe
the old dog made it that far, six miles, he pants after walking two
blocks. He couldn’t even get into the car, I had to lift him in, they
both fell asleep on the way home and then I had to lift the old boy out
of the car. I am relieved that they stayed together and that they
wandered into the yard of a sweet pet loving person. Thank you for the
inspiration, I needed it today.
Isn’t that the best? Yay!
And if you want more, I’ve been enjoying Erika’s How to Return Dogs Saga. Follow up story here. Seems she has a problem collecting dogs on accident, and has a 100% success rate in returning them to their rightful owners. We heart that.
Is it too late to join the 100 mile by April 1st?
Great dog stories. I’m not even going to mention the knitting stuff, because this was a post about dogs. So I won’t say that I just recently tried the Magic Loop and I love it. Haven’t tried 2 socks at a time yet though, but I will give it a shot. I expect I will feel like you did about it, but I’ll never know until I try.
But about dogs (see, you can be tricky too), I have also found numerous dogs over the past few years (my partner is a dog magnet). So I’d just like to shout out a friendly reminder to all dog people to please please please have a tag on your dog with your phone number. Even if you’re sure your dog will never get away. Because it makes it so much easier when you find a lost dog, look at the tag and can phone the parents right away.
Magic Loop all the way for me, too. But not with two at once. I like my sock knitting to be effortless.
I’ve put the plan in the works to get me a dog! Can I get a Woot!?
I know that there will be hard times, but I have children and I know the pay off is worth it.
Dude, I am SO with you on the two-socks-at-once thing . . . way, WAY too fussy and fidgety. Plus, even though you end up with a whole pair at the end, it feels so . . incredibly . . slow.
But yeah, the magic loop thing does rock!
Also, the returning-to-home dog stories? Love them!
I’m doing the Magic Loop method for the first time right now, and I’m hating it. Tell me what I’m missing. I’ve always got this big loop of circular popping up, getting in the way of my working needle. It drives me nuts. If only I had another size 1, I’d go straight back to the 2 circs. I’m using 40-inch Addis. Am I doing something wrong?
oh, i heart magic loop. i can do socks that way practically asleep now… though i always knit the same ribbed-top stockinette sock. whatever. love the loop.
awesome dog story too!
LAlalalalalalalalalalalala…t-minus 3 days before we leave the country for a month, leaving our dogs with my mother who sometimes has trouble with our gate….lalalalalalala not listening, dogs do not get lost and nothing bad will ever happen to our babies…lalalalalala
I tried to do that 2 socks in 1 thing from knitty, and let me tell you, that 22 page tutorial is missing some piccies.
dammit! Those dog stories always make me tear up!!
We keep coming because we are knitters who love dogs!
I AM SO HAPPY TO HAVE MY PUPS BACK!
We are going to have cupcakes to celebrate.
Want another “dog found” story in return?
Several years ago Jane took our two out for their evening walk when it was a bit stormy. Josie was off-leash when thunder and lightning started. She’s afraid of loud noises, so she bolted. Jane couldn’t keep up with her and came home without her to drop off Tina.
Before 2 hours had elapsed, a womanh had called because she had Josie in her car. Josie had run into a parking garage and leapt in the open back door of a Volvo, and settled down next to the owner’s two-year-old. The kid was sorry to see Josie stay with us.
Fantastic doggie story!! It made my day!!
We have found ourselves to be “dog-finders” several times over the past year – if they don’t have tags we take them home until after 5, and walk them around the neighborhood (this is how we returned 3 dogs), and if they do have tags we’ll keep them in our back yard until their owners can get home. I can only hope that someone would do that for me if, god forbid, my dogs got out. Love the doggy-happy-ending stories!
PMS. Wine. Kleenex. See what you’re doing to me…well at least the endings are good ones.
Look at you with the two at the same time. Should I feel guilty for waxing on about the joys of it, just to have gotten you into this tangled mess? Nah. I also am doing one sock from the middle and the other from the end, and the untwisting – well, it ain’t the funnest but isn’t thwarting me. Having agreed to disagree on magical 2 at a time, we can at least agree that dogs – two or even three at at time – totally rule. Loved the story, amazing. xoxo